Mining Weekly reports that Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, says the company is “much closer” to reaching a reasonable settlement with labour unions over wages and conditions of service for employees for the period from July 2018 to June 2021.
The unions involved are the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and Uasa. “On the ground, we are much closer to a reasonable settlement with our regions and our own employees. We think we’ve made good advances and we are in no rush to settle unless it is a settlement that is fair to our employees, our shareholders and to other stakeholders,” Froneman highlighted during a conference call on Thursday. He explained that Sibanye-Stillwater believed that any wage agreement must “reflect the inflationary environment”. Unions and some gold producers previously agreed to a three-year deal, concluded under the auspices of the Minerals Council SA (MCSA), which would allow for increases to the basic wage of so-called Category 4 to 8 employees of R575 in each of the next three years. For underground entry-level employees, a 7% increase was agreed for the first year. So-called ‘miners & artisans’ and ‘officials’ received increases of 4.25% in the first year of the agreement and increases equal to consumer inflation in each of the following two years.
- The original of this report is at Mining Weekly
- Read too, Sibanye-Stillwater plays hard ball on wages as gold division faces uncertain future, at Miningmx
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