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BL Premium reports that the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has backed off the urgency of its court case to force the state to rescind the lockdown exemptions of 129 mines.
Instead it has launched a second case to force the regulation of health and safety processes for hundreds of thousands of miners returning to work. Amcu is at the forefront of an organised labour pushback against the relaxing of national lockdown regulations for the mining sector. In the first of two court processes, Amcu argued that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) had acted outside its powers in allowing the exemptions granted to companies on 8 April. Regulatory developments overtook the case when the DMRE on 16 April unveiled amendments to the regulations, allowing for a return of all mines to 50% of capacity during the lockdown period under strict controls. “Since these amended regulations have now become law, we have urged our members to comply but reminded them of their right to refuse to work in dangerous conditions,” Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said on Tuesday. In its second case, Amcu will be seeking a Labour Court order for the DMRE or the chief inspector of mines to issue and gazette binding regulations about the return of mineworkers and how they should be screened, tested, isolated, quarantined and to be kept safe at work with proper protective gear and social distancing.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page