BL Premium reports that as the industrial action at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operation continues, the two big unions striking for higher wages say they are in it for the long haul.
It remains to be seen who will blink first: Sibanye management or leaders of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). The unions said their members would continue to down tools to “shake up” Sibanye’s gold operations, while the company has said it would continue implementing a lockout on striking workers until the two unions accepted its revised wage offer. On Monday, Sibanye said it had received an “unconditional acceptance” of its final wage offer from Solidarity and Uasa, which was made to the coalition of unions, including NUM and Amcu, on 4 February. It said members of Solidarity and Uasa would no longer be locked out of the workplace. The revised wage offer implies surface and underground workers getting a R700 monthly pay rise and a R100 increase in the living-out allowance each year for three years, and a 5% pay increase for so-called ‘artisans, miners and officials’ over the course of the multiyear agreement. The four unions had been negotiating with the company for nearly a year, demanding an increase of R1,000 a month, or 6%, plus a R100 increase in the living-out allowance, taking their wage demand to R1,100 each year for three years.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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