This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Fin24 reports that Eskom’s largest black-controlled coal supplier Seriti Power has launched a retrenchment process at its Klipspruit Colliery that could affect about 800 workers.
The mine is strained from operational challenges, lower prices and rail woes, and the group says if no action is taken it could lose close to R1 billion this year alone, putting the whole group at risk. Seriti Power – which consists of collieries acquired from South32 in 2021 – employs 3,554 permanent employees in SA, 826 of which work at Klipspruit in Mpumalanga. The company has invited unions to participate in a consultation process, in terms of section 189 of the Labour Relations Act, in a bid to mitigate job losses. Seriti said 775 employees might be impacted, 605 of which could be made redundant. Organised labour is deeply concerned that this section 189 process foreshadows many others in SA’s coal heartlands. According to Thapelo Malekutu of the National Union of Mineworkers, the issue of job losses in the sector has been growing. "At most of the [coal] mines, we are busy doing wage negotiations. But we have reached a deadlock; we can't get anything. And all of them, they're promising a Section 189," he indicated. While layoffs in the coal mining sector had begun trickling in a few months back, the Seriti process was particularly alarming because of the number of employees affected and the quality of the jobs, Malekutu said:
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Lisa Steyn at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page