Reuters reports that Sibanye-Stillwater advised on Thursday that it had stopped operations at its gold mines in SA after two major unions began a strike over wages.

The members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the United Association of SA (UASA) all voted for a strike. Solidarity, which had been part of the labour coalition during wage negotiations, broke ranks and accepted Sibanye's pay offer. After NUM and AMCU served Sibanye with a strike notice in the week, the company proceeded to issue a lock-out notice to bar all workers from accessing the work place. "We have halted operations at all the mines and all employees except for priority services have been requested to not come to work for the duration of the strike/lockout," Sibanye spokesperson James Wellsted indicated. He said no workers had reported for work on Thursday morning. On Wednesday, Solidarity said it would take Sibanye to court over the lock-out notice, which included Solidarity members, who had accepted the company's final offer of a 5% annual pay increase. The unions which voted in favour of a strike are demanding a pay increase of R1,000 per month over the next three years. Sibanye has said it would not be revising its final offer as it could not sustain bigger wage increases.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Mining Weekly
• Read too, Sibanye-Stillwater locks out employees from gold mines as curtain rises on painful strike, at Miningmx

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