This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Financial Mail reports that it is estimated that 88 miners died in accidents on SA’s mines last year, which was an unhappy regression for the industry because fatalities had fallen from 615 in 1993, to 200 in 2007, to 73 in 2016.
This year hasn’t started well either as the Chamber of Mines (COM) has confirmed that 14 mineworkers have died since the beginning of 2018. While the COM cannot pinpoint the exact reasons behind the spike in fatalities, trade unions have blamed increased pressure on workers as one of the causes. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers & Construction Union (Amcu) say workers have been forced to compromise on safety as they perform functions that would ordinarily require more manpower than is currently available. NUM’s health and safety chairman Peter Bailey says that since mass retrenchments hit the industry in 2014, mineworkers claim they have had to work long hours without rest, while the violation of safety standards has become the norm. Workers are facing a double-edged sword, say Bailey and Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa, namely a dysfunctional department of mineral resources has led to a mass exodus of skilled inspectors, leaving mining houses to their own devices. Lerato Tsele, acting head of safety at the COm, says her institution supports a call for a new inquiry into safety. In the past, similar inquiries made a big difference.
- Read this report by Theto Mahlakoana in full at BusinessLive
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page