Striking workers affiliated to two smaller unions at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations will soon return to work after their unions accepted the company’s revised wage offer of nearly R1,000 each year for three years.
In a statement on Monday, Sibanye said it had received an “unconditional acceptance” of its final wage offer from Solidarity and the United Association of SA (Uasa). The offer was made to the coalition of unions, including the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on February 4.
“As a consequence, effective 14 March 2022, members of Solidarity and Uasa at the SA gold operations will no longer be locked out of the workplace,” the company said.
It said the remaining two big unions, Amcu and NUM, had not yet accepted the final offer and their members continue to be locked out of the workplace until “such time as they accept the offer”.
“We are pleased that both Solidarity and Uasa have now unconditionally accepted our final offer, which we continue to believe is fair and in the interests of all stakeholders,” Sibanye-Stillwater CEO Neal Froneman said.
“This is positive progress in the wage negotiation process, and we are hopeful that both Amcu and NUM will soon follow suit to avoid further consequences for employees and other stakeholders from strike action that we know is not popular amongst the workforce.”
The four unions had been negotiating with the company for nearly a year, demanding an increase of R1,000 a month, or 6%, which is above the 4.9% inflation rate the SA Reserve Bank has forecast for 2022. They are also demanding a R100 increase in the living-out allowance, which takes their wage demand to R1,100 each year for three years.
Sibanye’s final offer, which Solidarity and Uasa have now accepted, will see surface and underground workers getting a R700 pay rise and a R100 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.
Amcu and NUM have stuck to their demands and downed tools on Wednesday night last week, to which the company responded by implementing a lockout. Sibanye said the lockout, which it implemented on Thursday last week, would remain in place until its final wage offer “is accepted by the unions that represent the majority of employees in the bargaining unit”.
It said, however, that the lockout will not affect employees providing “priority services”, and the principle of no work, no pay will apply to striking employees and locked-out members of the bargaining units of the coalition unions.
Amcu national treasurer Jimmy Gama told Business Day on Monday “our strike is still on”.
“We are still waiting for Sibanye to call us back to the negotiating table so that there may be a solution to this matter,” he said.
When contacted for comment, NUM president Joseph Montisetse, who was in a meeting with Amcu and NUM officials on Monday afternoon, said the strike is continuing.
Richard Cox, Sibanye vice-president for SA gold operations, said: “There is nothing to be gained from a strike. It will only serve to jeopardise the sustainability of our gold operations and will severely impact all stakeholders, particularly employees.
“We urge members of Amcu and NUM to carefully consider our collective future and to engage with your union representatives to end this action by accepting the final offer.”
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