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Lonmin, AMCU break ground on reducing job losses

3 Mar 2016

In a first of its kind process in South Africa, platinum miner, Lonmin, and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) have worked together to reduce job losses due to the former's restructuring plans.

Last year, Lonmin announced it was planning to downsize its workforce as part of its strategy to become more financially viable. At the time the plan was to retrench 4,500 of its full-time employees and 1,500 contractors.

Lonmin, AMCU break ground on reducing job losses

“We are delighted to announce that of the 6,000 employees who were at risk of being retrenched, we were able to reduce the figure to 87 employees,” AMCU said in a statement.

It started with freezing general recruitment and natural attrition to reduce the number of workers. In addition, over 1,550 employees left the company through voluntary severance packages (VSP) and early retirement by 16 October 2015. The total number of employees who have taken VSPs to date are 2,979, while other workers have been reskilled and redeployed.

The procedure - which was expected to take two months, ran over to seven months.