SABC News reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) marched to the Diro Manganese Mine outside Postmasburg in the Northern Cape on Tuesday to protest against retrenchments at the mine.
According to the union, the mine has been retrenching workers without agreeing on severance packages. Retrenched miners claim they were unceremoniously retrenched via sms, plunging them into debt. The workers have been out of work since receiving retrenchment messages via their cellphones in December 2016. "The key issue here is the issue of retrenchment whereby the company is continuing to sms our members to tell them that they are retrenched,” says NUM regional secretary, Cornelius Manhe. The mine’s representative indicated that there have been talks of a possible meeting to discuss the workers grievances. The workers have also accused the mine of not compensating workers injured at work. The union has given the mine seven days to respond to its grievances.
- Read this report by Nobelungu Nowapane in full at SABC News
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