Sibanye-Stillwater, one of the world’s leading producers of precious metals, has refuted claims by the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) that it tabled a revised wage offer during a meeting on Tuesday.
In an interview with Business Day on Thursday, NUM general secretary William Mabapa said the mine’s management tabled a revised wage offer of R800 plus a R50 increase in the living-out allowance each year for three years, and a 5% pay increase for artisans, miners and officials over the course of the multiyear agreement.
The alleged offer was slightly higher than the one already accepted by two smaller unions — Solidarity and the United Association of SA (Uasa) — which has seen the lowest-paid workers getting a wage increase of R700 and a R100 increase in the living-out allowance over the multiyear pay hike deal.
Responding to NUM’s claims, Sibanye spokespeople James Wellsted and Memory Johnstone said no revised offer was tabled during the meeting.
They said the meeting was called to congratulate the newly elected leadership of NUM, following its three-day national elective congress last week.
“We did have a meeting with NUM’s senior leadership, but the issue of wages was not on the agenda of that meeting. We wanted to congratulate the newly elected leadership. It is misleading of them to say a revised offer was tabled,” Wellsted said.
While Wellsted said he was not privy to what was discussed during the meeting, he stated that “we never tabled the offer. I think [NUM] are getting a bit ahead of themselves”.
NUM, and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), with a combined membership of about 25,000 at Sibanye’s gold operations, downed tools on March 9 in support of their demand for an increase of R1,000 a month for the lowest-paid employees, and 6% for miners, artisans and officials — above the headline inflation rate of 5.8% the Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022. They are also demanding a R100 increase in the living-out allowance, which takes their pay demand to R1,100 each year for three years.
Mabapa said NUM and Amcu leadership were holding a shop steward meeting on Thursday to discuss Sibanye’s revised offer and chart a way forward. He then accused Sibanye of trying to divide NUM-Amcu coalition, saying: “The employer is reluctant to table the same offer to Amcu. They want to divide NUM and Amcu.”
Wellsted stressed that the company was treating NUM and Amcu as a coalition and not two separate unions. “There was no offer. We will not give one union a higher number than the other union. Everyone will be equally treated the same,” he said. “Any settlement reached will apply to all workers. We consider them as a coalition, there is no attempted divide and rule. We are being very fair….”
Johnstone said striking workers — who have been locked out since March 10 — had lost R660m in wages to date, while the government had lost R75m in PAYE income tax and salary-related levies.
The mining sector contributes about 9% to GDP and directly employs about 450,000 people.
Wellsted said because the company was not producing any gold at the moment, it would lose revenue. “We will do our reconciliations now. It’s not about lost production: gold is not lost, we will just mine it when we go back to production. There is no loss,” he said.
The protracted strike could deprive Sibanye of benefiting from the gold price that has leapt from a low of $1,782/oz at the beginning of 2022 to $2,070/oz, its highest price since August 2020. Sibanye’s gold operations account for 7% of group profit and employ about 31,000 people.
Amcu’s five-month strike from November 2018 at Sibanye’s gold operations cost the company R1.6bn and 110,000oz in lost production of gold, while nine people died. Workers forfeited R1.5bn in pay during industrial action, after which Amcu accepted terms that had been accepted by NUM, Solidarity and the Uasa.
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