Trade union Solidarity reports that, after week-long negotiations, it has reached an agreement with the Lily Mine business rescue practitioner on retrenchment packages for workers who have applied for them.  

According to Solidarity’s Gideon du Plessis, the agreement entails that workers will receive salary payments until the end of May and that their salaries for the months of April and May will be paid out as soon as possible, but no later than 30 June 2016.  Workers who were trapped underground at the time of the mining accident on 5 February 2016 will receive a goodwill payment of R50,000 by 30 July 2016.  Du Pleassis commented:   “Although this agreement may bring short-term relief for the workers applying for it, the poverty into which the workers have already been plunged could worsen if urgent funding cannot be found to pay the packages and all the unpaid salaries of the workers.”

• Read Solidarity’s press statement at Solidarity online

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