Mining Weekly reports that Royal Bafokeng Platinum (RBPlat) CEO Steve Phiri said on Monday in reply to analyst queries on the company’s rising wage bill that a premium has to be paid for labour stability.
Reporting a 67% gross improvement in earnings in the six months to 30 June, Phiri was answering questions on cost increases. Citi Research MD Johann Steyn queried RBPlat's labour and contractor costs that each rose about 14%. Phiri said that as a result of the increases the company had given its enrolled labour, a pay gap had opened up between the company’s own employees and contractor workers. Pay to contractor workers was increased to the level of the company’s own enrolled labour. “You don’t want people working in the same area, one panel next to the other, earning different salaries,” said Phiri, who added that the medical aid of contractor workers was also brought into line, which increased the overall wages of contractor workers. Executive head of operations Neil Carr pointed out the 2014 five-year wage agreement was front-end loaded, with the percentage increase in the first two years higher that in the following three years to 2019, and that the benefits would be seen from this year onwards.
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