NUM statement declares war on the current retrenchments waged by the Mining Industry
04 June 2015
The National Union Mineworkers (NUM) is concerned by the current coordinated mass retrenchment drive by major companies in the mining industry, this with underlying deliberate circumvention of current regulatory framework as stipulated by Section 52 of the MPRDA 2002. Which states the following:
“The holder of a mining right must, after consultation with any registered trade union or affected employees or their nominated representatives where there is no such trade union, notify the Minister in the prescribed manner- (a) where prevailing economic conditions cause the profit to revenue ratio of the relevant mine to be less than six per cent on average for a continuous period of 12 months; or (b) if any mining operation is to be scaled down or to cease with the possible effect that 10 per cent or more of the labour force or more than 500 employees, whichever is the lesser, are likely to be retrenched in any 12-month period.”
The two most concerning factors are the circumvention of the above S52 (c) in terms of 500 or 10% threshold and the non-participatory of the Chamber of Mines in the MIGDETT Job Losses task team set by the last Principals meeting to deal with this crisis of Job’s losses. Since 2012, the mining industry has shed more than 35 000 jobs, the majority of these are in the platinum and gold industry. Since the start of 2015, the whole industry has retrenched between 5000 -10 000 jobs. As we speak there are approximately 30 companies that have issued us with Section 189 notifications, with a minimum of between 15 000- 20 000 jobs to be lost as per companies calculation.
All this is done with the blessing of the Chamber of Mines, who’s last Council meeting decided not to participate in the MIGDETT job losses task team directed by Principals meeting chaired by the Minister of Mineral Resources Advocate Ngoako Ramathlodi. We find this to be a direct violation of the Framework Agreement for Sustainable Mining Industry, founding principles of MIGDETT and the 2010 Stakeholders Declaration on Strategy for the Sustainable Growth and Meaningful Transformation of South Africa’s Mining Industry.
We thus call on the Minister to schedule an urgent MIGDETT Principals meeting to deal with rogue Chamber of Mines, Individual Mining Right Holders complying with the MPRDA 2002, Alignment process with the Department of Labour (with the CCMA and Productivity SA taking part) and finally deal with transgressors like Optimum Coal/Glencore whose closure of opencast operation/s is in contravention of Section 52 and Regulation 46 (d).
Delinquent Optimum Coal/ Glencore, planned to implement retrenchment of more than 1000 employees on the 7th June 2015 despite the fact that there is an abundance of ore reserves. The company rejected all alternatives that included, e.g.:
- Selling to prospective buyers;
- Implementing training lay off scheme as per NEDLAC resolutions;
- Optimal utilisation of Productivity South Africa to do the economic analysis of the company.
It is unfortunate that this action by Glencore/Optimum Coal seeks to promote sterilisation of mineral wealth which is a contradiction with the spirit of the MPRDA 2002.
We are seriously concerned by the decision of Glencore to close Optimum Coal when it is a well-known fact that more than half of the country’s electricity generation is coal based and that Eskom is at this stage in dire straits regarding proper supply. The NUM has proposed a number of options to Glencore including the sale of the operation to interested buyers and continue mining to save jobs but this was met with rejection by the company at the peril of the country.
We reiterate and support a call by Cosatu that the intransigent behaviour by Glencore management confirms our long-held view that the capitalists interests in our country, is to extract minerals, make huge profits and invest those profits in their own countries of origin. Their interests have never been to improve the lives of our people or to make a meaningful contribution to the development of our country.
The NUM welcomes the Mineral & Petroleum Boards swift formation of an Ad-hoc Committee to deal with Job losses in the industry and hopes the board will advise the Minister on the appropriate solutions to avoid job losses in the industry, as well as proper legislative framework for non-compliant licence holders.
The NUM declares war against job losses through retrenchments, Voluntary Severance Package and other untoward COM concocted means of destroying the lives of many families with dependants in labour-sending areas.
Statement issued by Tshimane Montoed, NUM Deputy General Secretary, June 4 2015
