SA Strike update26 Oct 2012 00:20
Sorry so long but cut and pasted on my phone. In short, gold mine sector has come to an agreement. SA gold companies sign deal with three unions
By: Natasha Odendaal
25 Oct 2012
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers, Solidarity and UASA on Thursday agreed to a new pay structure for the gold mining sector, which was hit hard by wildcat strike action.
The unions and the Chamber of Mines (CoM), representing gold producers AngloGold Ashanti, Gold Fields and Harmony, agreed to an addendum to the gold sector’s 2011 to 2013 wage agreement.
The “tweaked” proposal would see the establishment of a new operator level for loader, locomotive, winch and water jet operators within category 4, with basic rates adjusted by between R250 and R400 a month.
Rock-drill operators would receive either a R500 addition to their basic wages or a R400 allowance.
The companies would remove the category 3 level so that entry level in the gold mining industry became category 4, with a consequential adjustment of the entry-level basic rate to R5 000 a month for underground employees, except novices.
The basic minimum rate for category 4 surface employees was adjusted to R4 350 a month.
Underground novices would receive R4 840 a month, which would be increased to R5 000 after a year, while novice surface workers would receive R4 235 a month, to be increased after a year to R4 350.
UASA divisional manager Franz Stehring explained that, with immediate effect, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields would increase the monthly basic rates for category 4 to 8 employees by 2%, while Harmony agreed to increase the monthly basic rates for category 3 to 8 employees by 1.5%.
CoM employment relations senior executive Dr Elize Strydom said that all the adjustments were in addition to the scheduled 8.5% to 10% salary increases the workers received in July.
She added that the wildcat strikes had cost the striking employees millions in wage, as well as negatively impacting on the gold mining industry and the country’s economy.
“The gold companies and the unions are determined collectively to chart a way forward for the industry that will strengthen the structures of collective bargaining and avoid a repetition of recent events,” she stressed.
Harmony Gold spokesperson Marian van der Walt confirmed that 98% of the 5 400 striking workers at its Kusasalethu mine, near Carletonville, had returned by 6:00 on Thursday. Those who did not report for duty would face immediate dismissal.
Gold Fields reported that more than 7 000 of the 8 100 dismissed KDC East workers had filed for an appeal. Last week, Gold Fields fired 1 500 workers who did not turn up for work at its KDC West operations.
Workers at AngloGold Ashanti returned to the company's Kopanang and Great Noligwe operations, in the Vaal region, and the Moab Khotsong operations, near Orkney, this week.
The company starte
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