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BusinessLive reports that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) is demanding R17,000 a month per miner in the platinum sector, as wage talks with the biggest producers start, prompting an angry response from Sibanye-Stillwater.
The average basic wage for the lowest earners in the platinum industry is R11,500 a month. Amcu, which has used R12,500 per month as its rallying call since 2012 when it rose to prominence in the platinum industry, has adjusted its base demand to R17,000 per month because of inflation, the union’s president, Joseph Mathunjwa said on Friday. He noted the strong increase in palladium and rhodium prices since 2017 at a media briefing ahead of the start of wage talks with Sibanye-Stillwater, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum. Amcu’s demands include provisions around housing, provident funds, transport, medical aids and other issues, which Mathunjwa said would amount to a total demand of R30,000 per worker. Sibanye immediately dismissed Amcu’s demands as “impractical and unaffordable”. An analyst described Amcu’s opening demands as the “usual opening gambit” and that there was unlikely to be a major strike because platinum miners were making good bonuses in the prevailing price environment.
- Read the full original of Allan Seccombe’s report on this story at BusinessLive
- Read Amcu’s press statement at Polity
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page