Gold miner Sibanye-Stillwater has revised its wage offer to four mining unions, proposing annual increases of nearly R1,000, in an effort to avoid industrial action that could bear negative consequences for its SA gold operations.
Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis told Business Day on Sunday that Sibanye-Stillwater management came close to meeting the unions’ demands for increases of R1,000 each year for three years, when it revised its offer of increases of R570-R670 for lowest-paid employees to R800 for each of the three years.
According to the new proposal, miners, artisans and officials would receive 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 ball is now effectively back in the court of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity, Uasa and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) to decide whether to accept the proposal.
Friday’s meeting comes after the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) issued a certificate of non-resolution to the unions three weeks ago, allowing workers to embark on a strike in support of their demands for above-inflation wage increases.
Favourable consideration
This seemed to have forced the company back to the negotiating table as it stressed previously it would do everything to avoid a strike as industrial action would have “significant consequences” for its gold operations.
“The unions will now present the revised offer to our members during the week. Solidarity, which mainly represent miners, artisans and officials, will recommend to our members to give favourable consideration to the offer of 5%,” said Du Plessis.
“Solidarity appreciates the recent progress that was made that finally brought us within a settlement range, but Friday’s progress showed how flawed and counterproductive the previous seven months of negotiations were when parties conducted the negotiations through a third party instead of talking directly to each other during the CCMA facilitation process.”
Du Plessis said the four mining unions’ members “still need to give their final mandate to accept or reject the offer, and it is now up to the workers to decide”.
The unions approached the CCMA in November 2021 to apply for a strike certificate after wage talks between the parties deadlocked.
This 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.
Rejected deal
In terms of that proposal, miners, artisans and officials would receive 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 has maintained that the unions’ wage demands were unaffordable and would add R2.5bn to the wage bill by July 2023.
After the unions rejected this deal — which would have increased the company’s wage bill at its gold operations by R1.2bn by July 2023 — Sibanye-Stillwater reverted to the offer tabled to unions on October 19, proposing increases of R520-R640 over three years. Miners, artisans and officials would receive an increase of 4.1% in year one, and 4.7% in years two and three, according to the deal.
When contacted for comment, Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson James Wellsted said there was “no specific outcome” of the meeting on Friday, adding, “We will continue to engage.”
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