BL Premium reports that trade union Solidarity said on Friday that Kumba Iron Ore had issued notices of potential retrenchment to 1,620 employees.

This development comes on the back of the company’s record annual operating profit. The 70%-held Anglo American subsidiary confirmed the cuts, saying its “business transformation journey over recent years” included “a targeted organisational restructure to ensure the right work is done at the right time, in the right way by capable people in roles that are designed with clear accountabilities and authorities”.  Kumba's notification on 4 March to its unions indicated as follows:  “It is estimated that approximately 1,620 employees across the business will be affected in some way or other, however it is envisaged that 653 employees may be retrenched.”  The company employs 6,141 people after steadily reducing its staffing numbers from nearly 11,800 in 2015. “It is unfair and simply insensitive of Kumba to punish workers amid a pandemic and an excellent financial performance with increased turnover, profits and dividends declared. The rationale put forward by Kumba simply has no grounds,” said Riaan Visser, deputy general secretary for mining, agriculture and the chemical industry at Solidarity. The timing of the retrenchments could not be worse, Visser added. “With unemployment at the highest level in SA’s history, a business cannot justify such actions in any way. We will not tolerate it,” he stated.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Allan Seccombe at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

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