Unions have decried the proposed retrenchment process by the world’s largest platinum producer, Sibanye-Stillwater, saying the nearly 2,000 affected employees risk facing a “black Christmas” if it goes ahead.
Sibanye blamed Eskom’s load-shedding, inflation-beating increases and operational challenges for its decision, which it said was not made “lightly”.
The group recently concluded a five-year wage deal for above-inflation increases, while its gold operations were hit by a protracted wage strike in the first half of the year.
The decision makes Sibanye one of the first high-profile SA companies to share with employees the pain of rolling power cuts, which have spoilt the mood in boardrooms and whacked the economy, whose prospects are already weak.
It came after numerous unsuccessful attempts to address “productivity and other operational issues” at the Beatrix mine in the Free State and the depletion of surface rock dump mineral reserves to Kloof 1 plant in Gauteng.
“These operations are mature, having operated for many decades and are running out of economically extractable ore reserves, which has been compounded by above-inflation cost pressures, including electricity tariffs, and disruptions to operations by Eskom load curtailment,” Sibanye spokesperson James Wellsted said on Tuesday.
The development touches on one of the major socioeconomic challenges facing SA, with unemployment hovering at record highs and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government under pressure to come up with the solution for millions of jobless people.
For workers, according to Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis, Sibanye’s move “means that the affected employees face a black Christmas with the uncertainty of whether they will still have a job in 2023".
The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union declined to comment, saying it needs more information from Sibanye.
Restructuring
National Union of Mineworkers president Dan Balepile said the Cosatu affiliate is opposed to retrenchments.
“We are ready to engage them [Sibanye]. If they don’t listen to us, we could go the direction that they don’t like and that which we do not like, and that’s strike action,” he said.
Wellsted said the proposed restructuring “may potentially result in the retrenchment of up to 1,956 employees and affect 465 contractors”.
The section 189 process involves a minimum compulsory consultation period of 60 days, which may be extended on agreement between the parties, said Wellsted.
“To allow shafts and operating plants that are no longer sustainable to continue operating at a loss will threaten the remaining life of mine of the other SA gold operations, and ultimately also the employees of the broader group.
“We are committed to minimising the impact of the proposed restructuring and will constructively engage with all relevant stakeholders in an effort to avoid job losses, while attempting to limit the impact on the remainder of the operation’s employees and the sustainability of the group,” said Wellsted.
René Hochreiter, a consulting mining analyst at Noah Capital Markets and MD of Sieberana Research, said: “Once you don’t make profits, you close the mines down. That’s normal business; it’s not a charity, it’s a business. If you don’t make money, you close down.”
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