Business Report writes that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has interdicted the retrenchment process at Village Main Reef (VMR) to ensure its members are fairly compensated amid the company’s restructuring plans.
Masibulele Naki, the NUM’s regional secretary for the Matlosana region, said on Thursday that the union had interdicted VMR’s so-called Section 189 plan, which would affect the gold producer’s 6,000-strong workforce. Naki indicated: “They (VMR) received letters from our lawyers yesterday (Wednesday) and were given until the close of business today to respond, failing which they will receive a motion of interdict by tomorrow (Friday). We are interdicting the Section 189 process to get to the bottom of their severance package payment plan. We cannot finalise this process, whereas there are issues of payment hanging.” Naki advised that during the consultation, the company had indicated that 3,977 people would be retrenched and 2,003 would remain. He charged that the company planned to halve the severance packages: “During the consultation process, the company said it would pay severance packages as per the Labour Relations Act, not as per the agreement we signed during wage negotiations.” The act requires that workers receive one week of pay per year of service. According to Naki, the company has not paid employees their salaries since the Covid-19 lockdown in March.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Dineo Faku at BusinessReport
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