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BL Premium writes that as Sibanye-Stillwater gold mineworkers prepare to return to work after agreeing on a wage deal, analysts say their victory could be short-lived as it will take them years to recoup the more than R1.2bn they forfeited in wages during the protracted strike.
It is reckoned that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), whose members embarked on a nearly three-month wage strike at Sibanye’s gold operations, should have settled on a deal a lot sooner. “The unions have lost out badly. They lost a fortune of money for having been out on strike for so long, and they have not got so much from the proposed wage deal,” Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine commented on Monday. Labour analyst Michael Bagraim said both sides, the workers and Sibanye, have lost money from the “entire exercise”. He pointed out: “The government has lost income tax, the staff have lost salary, management have lost profits. Even with a greater increase it will take the staff almost a year to catch up on the money that they have lost.” North West University Business School professor Raymond Parsons said: “Only the parties concerned can finally decide to what extent they are better off after a protracted strike, even though a clinical cost-benefit analysis may suggest otherwise.” However, NUM general secretary William Mabapa shot down suggestions it would take years for workers to claw back lost wages, saying such an assessment was “not correct”. The protracted wage strike by about 25,000 gold mineworkers affiliated to the two unions effectively ended on Friday when strikers gave their leadership a mandate to accept a three-year wage proposal made by the CCMA to the parties. Sibanye’s Memory Johnstone indicated she would give an update on the final losses suffered by workers and the government “later this week”, while further details on the finalisation of the agreement would be provided in due course.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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