S.Africa gold talks unfold
amid threat to jobs
12:17 p.m. Jul 01, 1999 Eastern
By Darren Schuettler
JOHANNESBURG, July 1
(Reuters) - South Africa's gold
companies delivered a modestly
improved wage offer to unionised
workers on Thursday as the threat
of further job losses hung over the
embattled industry.
Union leaders said their members
would likely reject what the
industry says is their best offer in a
dismal gold market.
''This is our ultimate offer and we
have indicated if the union is not
able to accept these offers then we
will be withdrawing them,'' Frans
Barker, head of industrial relations
for the Chamber of Mines, told
Reuters.
The Chamber represents most of
the gold and coal companies
involved in talks to replace the
current two-year deal which
expired on Thursday.
About 200,000 unionised workers
are represented by the National
Union of Mineworkers (NUM)
and three other smaller unions.
The Chamber is offering gold
miners wage increases of between
seven and nine percent per year in
a two-year agreement. Coal
miners would receive between
6.50 and 7.25 percent in the first
year and an inflation-linked
increase in the second year.
Barker said both industries are
suffering from poor commodity
prices but the situation is more
acute in coal where the industry is
sitting on huge stockpiles.
''The position on coal is extremely
difficult. On gold they are at least
still selling their product, but on
coal they are not even selling their
product,'' Barker said.
The Chamber had previously
offered wage increases of between
five and seven percent.
The NUM opened the bargaining
in May with demands for a 25
percent wage hike, but has since
trimmed that to 18 percent.
NUM spokesman George
Molebatsi said the Chamber's offer
was ''ridiculous,'' but union
negotiators would consult their
members before delivering a
formal response.
''It's time to report back to our
members, but you must remember
we have come from 25 percent to
18 percent and they are talking
eight percent. That is ridiculous,''
Molebatsi said.
Since the labour talks began,
bullion has lost about $30 an
ounce on the back of bearish
announcements from the UK
central bank and International
Monetary Fund (IMF).
London gold was trading around
$263 per ounce on Thursday.
The gold slump has fuelled fears of
further mine retrenchments in
South Africa, the world's biggest
gold producer, where the gold
workforce has dropped to around
300,000 from a peak of over
500,000 in the 1980s.
South Africa's Gold Crisis
Committee on Thursday confirmed
that five gold mines had applied for
permission to retrench about 8,000
mineworkers.
''The committee will sit and look
at the procedures and alternative
means of saving jobs,'' Thibedi
Ramontja, a senior committee
official, told Reuters.
The committee was set up by gold
companies, labour unions and
government last year to review
retrenchments and seek
alternatives to job losses.
The Chamber and NUM have
warned that more than a quarter of
the mining workforce could lose
their jobs if gold held below $260.
At those levels, about 40 percent
of the country's gold output is
unprofitable, threatening more than
80,000 jobs.
The committee is also pondering
the fate of East Rand Proprietary
Mines (ERPM) which is struggling
to survive in the current gold
environment.
ERPM, which warned last month
that its future was in doubt, said on
Thursday the situation had not
improved and called for an urgent
meeting of the committee.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited |
