Industrial action is looming in the gold sector after mineworkers affiliated to a coalition of disgruntled unions elected to go on a strike over their demands for above-inflation increases at gold miner Sibanye-Stillwater.
The workers belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Uasa, and Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), elected to down tools during a mass meeting held at Carletonville outside Johannesburg on Sunday.
That followed a rejection of Sibanye-Stillwater's recently revised wage offer of R800 each year for three years, sticking to their demand for a R1,000 wage increase each year of the multiyear agreement.
NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said trade union Solidarity did not attend the mass meeting. Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis could not be reached immediately for comment.
Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson James Wellsted said: “We are aware of the meeting [held on Sunday] and the unions have requested a meeting with management, which we are trying to schedule. We will be able to comment once the meeting has been held.”
The workers are set to down tools despite Sibanye-Stillwater having come close to meeting the unions’ demands during a meeting on February 4, where it revised its offer of increases of R570-R670 for lowest-paid employees to R800 for each of the three years.
According to the now rejected revised proposal, miners, artisans and officials would have received salary increases of 5% for each of the three years. The SA Reserve Bank forecasts inflation to average 4.9% in 2022, 4.5% in 2023 and 4.5% in 2024.
The meeting on February 4 came after the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) issued a certificate of nonresolution to the unions recently, allowing workers to embark on a strike in support of their demands for above-inflation wage increases.
The unions approached the CCMA in November 2021 to apply for a strike certificate after wage talks between the parties deadlocked. That was after they rejected a revised proposal by Sibanye-Stillwater, made on November 18, which would have given the lowest-paid employees increases of R570-R670 over three years.
According to that proposal, miners, artisans and officials would have received increases of 4.5%, 4.9% and 4.9% during the three-year term. The workers rejected the proposed deal and stuck to their demand for a wage hike of R1,000 each year for three years.
The company, which has said a strike would be devastating to its operations, has maintained that the unions’ wage demands were unaffordable and would add R2.5bn to the wage bill by July 2023.
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