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South Africa: Labor unrest, strikes wind down with Amplats deal
(Reuters) – Workers have reached a deal with Anglo American Platinum to reinstate 12,000 miners sacked for an illegal strike, which could end the last big industrial action rocking South Africa’s mining sector.
Months of wildcat strikes have cut production in the platinum and gold sectors, raising concerns about slowing economic growth.
“They agreed to reinstate all the dismissed workers on the provision that they return to work by Tuesday,” Lesiba Seshoka, spokesman for the powerful National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), told Reuters on Saturday.
Seshoka said he expected workers would return to their posts and “that will mean the end of the strike”.
Anglo American Platinum, or Amplats, said in a separate statement it had reached the deal with several unions and offered sweeteners such as a one-off hardship payment of 2,000 rand (US$ 232) to facilitate the return. The strike has lasted about six weeks and crippled production.
“Employees who do not return to work on Tuesday … will remain dismissed and/or be subjected to the illegal strike disciplinary action and will not be eligible for any of the benefits mentioned above,” it said in a statement.
In recent days, several wildcat strikes over wages and working conditions in the gold sector have come to an end with employers firing, or threatening to fire, miners striking illegally.
