Trade union Solidarity, which has about 700 members at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations, has accepted the company’s revised wage offer that will see lowest-paid employees getting increases of nearly R1,000 a year for three years.
The offer Solidarity accepted will entail surface and underground workers getting a R700 wage increase and a R100 increase in the living out allowance over the term of the agreement.
Another category of workers including artisans, miners and officials will get increases of 5% a year over the multiyear agreement.
“We are no longer in dispute with the company,” said Riaan Visser, Solidarity’s deputy general secretary for mining. “We informed the company in writing on Tuesday.”
Solidarity was part of a coalition of mining unions including the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), and Uasa that demanded an increase of R1,000 a month or 6% above the 4.9% inflation rate the Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022.
Last week, the unions indicated at a media briefing, after rejecting the latest revised wage offer, that they were getting ready to embark on a “massive strike of more than 30,000 workers” at Sibanye’s gold operations.
The balloting of the unions’ membership on Tuesday was overseen by officials of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Visser said Solidarity members did not take part in the balloting process. “On Monday we informed the other unions that we won’t participate in the balloting for a strike because we undertook a mandate-seeking process on February 21 and February 22. They indicated that they want to accept the offer and don’t want to participate in balloting for a strike,” he said.
The vote counting was under way on Wednesday with results expected soon.
If the NUM, Amcu, and Uasa vote to down tools, a strike could hurt the mining sector, which has performed well due to the global commodity price boom in 2021. The sector contributes about 9% to GDP, with about 450,000 people employed directly by the industry.
Uasa minerals and energy leader Franz Stehring told Business Day that the CCMA was still counting ballots.
Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson James Wellsted said the company will comment only after it gets a formal notice of intent from all the unions in the coalition.
“We confirm that we have received notification from Solidarity. But the full outcome of the ballot process undertaken by the four unions under the auspices of the CCMA has not yet been communicated to the company,” Wellsted said.
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