Mineworkers thumb-down gold companies' wage plan
According to Mineweb, members of South Africa's biggest union, National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), rejected a proposal by the nation's largest gold companies to raise wages and end strikes that have crippled the industry. NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said employees who belong to the NUM didn't accept the offer.
Chamber of Mines chief negotiator Elize Strydom said yesterday that AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Gold Fields Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co. had offered an additional 2% raise and Harmony 1.5% in categories four through eight this year. According to the proposal, category three, the entry level, would be eliminated, meaning the lowest-paid workers would get a wage at the higher category, Strydom said
About 41% of South Africa's gold output is idled, including all of AngloGold's mines. Two Gold Fields sites were halted after workers walked out without heeding resolution procedures set out by labour laws, while miners have been absent from Harmony's Kusasalethu operation since at least Oct. 3, Mineweb says.
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