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South Africa: Pending job cuts may derail deal to end platinum miners work stoppage
Differences over possible job cuts in South Africa’s platinum mines emerged on Tuesday as mining union Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) prepared to sign a 3-year wage deal with the world’s top producers of the metal to end a crippling five-month work stoppage.
The AMCU on Monday declared an end to the longest and costliest work stoppage in South African history. The union said its 70,000 members would return to work at Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum and Lonmin this week.
But signs of disagreement emerged over whether the wage deals covered the issue of future job cuts – known as ‘retrenchments’ in South Africa.
According to AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa, the companies have committed to no job cuts. This commitment was going to last for the duration of the 3-year deal to ensure productivity is not interrupted.
However, an industry source told reporters “the producers are absolutely not committed to that. It’s not true.”
Lonmin spokeswoman Sue Vey said she was not aware of any “no job cuts” clause in the wage deal. The companies, which have lost over 24 billion rand (US$2.26 billion) in revenue as a result of the stoppage, have said the labor unrest makes “restructuring and shedding of jobs inevitable.”
Job cuts are a thorny issue in South Africa which has an unemployment rate of close to 25 percent and AMCU members in the past have gone on wildcat strikes to protest planned job losses at Amplats.
The exact timing of the signing of the agreements on Tuesday was not immediately clear but AMCU was due to hold a news conference in Johannesburg in the afternoon.
Under the populist battle cry of a “living wage”, AMCU had initially demanded that basic wages of miners be more than doubled immediately to 12,500 rand (US$1,200) a month. In the end, its members settled for 3-year deals that amount to increases of around 20 percent annually.