MINING firm Sibanye-Stillwater said yesterday the United Association of South Africa (Uasa) union had accepted its wage offer, meaning Uasa members would no longer be locked out of the workplace.
Sibanye has been in talks with unions over wages at its South African gold operations, and implemented a lockout last Thursday after receiving strike notice from the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) earlier in the week.
Members of the Solidarity union, which accepted Sibanye’s wage offer last week, would no longer be locked out of the workplace either, Sibanye said yesterday. Solidarity had said it would challenge the company’s move to lock out its members.
Sibanye chief executive Neal Froneman said the company was “hopeful” that both the NUM and Amcu would soon accept the offer too.
Under Sibanye’s final offer – the sixth since talks began – miners, artisans and officials would receive a 5 percent pay increase each year, while “unskilled and semi-skilled” employees would be given an annual increase of R800 a month each year between 2022 and 2024.
REUTERS