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South Africa: Union and gold miners ease some pay demands as work stoppage bites
“We said to them: ‘If you are prepared to move, then we may be prepared to move,'” Lesiba Seshoka said in comments broadcast by SAFM radio.
But Seshoka later told reporters the union still wanted a 60 percent increase in basic pay for entry-level underground workers, which would take it to ZAR8,000 (US$778) a month from ZAR5,000 (US$487).
The employers’ offer is for a 6.5 percent rise, just above the current inflation rate.
The union’s demands also include 15 percent pay rises for all other categories of workers and it was in this specific area that the National Union of Mineworkers was willing to show flexibility, Seshoka said.
“For entry-level workers we are still where we were. We have not budged. But from the 15 percent we may be prepared to go lower but will accept nothing below double digits,” he said.
In a sign of some progress, two junior gold producers, Village Main Reef and Pan African Resources, said they had reached wage agreements with National Union of Mineworkers members in their work forces on salary increases of around 8 percent.
The National Union of Mineworkers tough position regarding the lowest-paid workers is significant because it has been fighting to retain membership after losing tens of thousands of members to its rival, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) in a union turf war that broke out last year.
