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Miningmx reports that the South Deep regional branch of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has declined to accept an improved retrenchment package offered by Gold Fields.
This raises the prospect of prolonged strike action at the mine. “I can confirm the offer was not accepted so it’s the status quo; it’s where we were,” said Sven Lunsche, spokesman for Gold Fields. In addition to a retrenchment package sweetener, Gold Fields would have spread the impact of the no work, no pay over four months, while affected employees would also have been provided with portable skills training and a call back provision. The incremental cost of the sweetener would have been an estimated R40m. Gold Fields said on 14 August that it would need to retrench 1,560 staff, including 1,082 permanent employees, in an effort to stem a cash burn. Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland said in a later statement: “However long the strike continues, it cannot and will not lead to changes in the restructuring plans, including the 1,082 retrenchments, that are necessary for South Deep’s long-term sustainability and saving the remaining 3,500 jobs.” Holland, claimed last week that there was evidence that employees wanted to return to work after some 1,900 of them had registered their interest in doing so.
- Read the full original report in this regard by David McKay at Miningmx
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