LOL21 Aug 2012 04:52
It was left, not to a journalist, but to Solidarity deputy general secretary Gideon du Plessis to go and find out the actual figures. In a statement issued on Monday he reported "The adjusted total cost package of a Lonmin rock drill operator is approximately R10 500 a month, excluding bonuses." He added that "the rock drill operators and their representative union, Amcu, did not submit written demands nor declare a wage dispute, which is the norm in a process of collective bargaining."
In response to a separate query from Politicsweb Lonmin's Mark Munroe Executive Vice President of Mining, basically confirmed these amounts. He stated: "Lonmin's Rock Drill Operators earn in the region of R10,000 per month without bonus's and over R11,000 including bonus's. These levels are in line with those of our competitors and are before the wage hike of some 9% which will come into effect on 1 October 2012."
If this increase applies to the whole compensation package it would push gross earnings - with and without bonuses - to between R11 000 and R12 000 per month. The net income of rock drill operators may well be considerably less than this - after deductions - but this is the cost to company.
One has to ask why no-one in the world's media appear seem to have bothered to verify the R4 000 figure - or others they were given by disgruntled protestors - with either Lonmin or the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), both of whom would have had it at hand. Given the critical nature of this information for any analysis of the strikers demands it seems like a very basic mistake.
http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=320512&sn=Detail&pid=71619
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