The two largest unions striking at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations will meet management on Tuesday to table their consolidated response to the miner’s final settlement offer of an R800 wage hike and a R50 increase in living-out allowance each year for three years, for the lowest-paid employees.
According to the settlement offer artisans, miners and officials will get a 5% wage increase for the duration of the multi-term agreement.
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have been on strike at Sibanye since March 9 in support of their demand for above-inflation wage increases. Striking employees, who have been locked out since March 10, have lost about R990m in wages, while the government has lost about R113m in PAYE income tax and salary-related levies.
Sibanye, the world’s largest platinum group metals producer, had previously offered unions 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. Two other unions, the United Association of SA (Uasa) and Solidarity, subsequently accepted the offer.
In a statement, Sibanye said the final settlement offer would translate to an increases of 7.8% in basic wages in year one, 7.2% in year two and 6.8% in year three, and would increase the mining group’s wage bill by R1.67bn over the three-year period, excluding concessions made for non-wage demands.
The revised offer, however, still falls short of demands tabled by Amcu and NUM, which jointly represent about 25,000 of the 31,000 employees at Sibanye’s gold operations.
The two unions are demanding an increase of R1,000, which amounts to a 9.8% rise in year one, 8.8% in year two and 8.2% in year three for entry-level workers, including surface and underground miners. The SA Reserve Bank has forecast a headline inflation rate of 5.8% for 2022.
NUM general secretary William Mabapa said on Sunday that the two unions are holding mass meetings in an effort to get a mandate from their membership on Sibanye’s final settlement offer. “The last mass meeting will be held at the Beatrix mine in Free State. We will then meet the mine management on Tuesday to table our consolidated response to their latest offer,” Mabapa said.
Richard Cox, Sibanye-Stillwater executive vice-president for SA gold operations, said: “Our offer is fair, takes into account inflationary living costs, considers the sustainability of the SA gold operations and is in the interests of all stakeholders. We urge employees to carefully consider the offer we have made and to ensure that their voices are heard.”
The protracted strike at Sibanye’s gold operations — which account for 7% of group profit — could deprive the mining giant of an opportunity to take advantage of the gold price’s jump from $1,782/oz at the beginning of 2022 to $2,070, the highest since August 2020.
Sibanye has said though it is “premature to attribute accurate numbers to production losses”, the company has published production guidance of between 813,000oz and 873,000oz for 2022. It could lose at least 135,500oz if the industrial action continues for two months.
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 the industrial action, after which Amcu accepted terms that had been accepted by NUM, Solidarity and Uasa.
The mining industry is one of the crucial sectors of the economy as it contributes about 9% to GDP and directly employs about 450,000 people.
Correction: April 25 2022
This article has been updated to reflect that the R850 final settlement offer includes an increase of R800 on wages and R50 on living out allowance.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.