Solidarity: Business rescue for Sibanye-Stillwater to save jobs
3 December 2021
Solidarity announced today that it believes that Sibanye-Stillwater should place itself under voluntary business rescue. This follows after the mining house made it clear during wage negotiations that it did not intend to put a contingency plan in place to prevent retrenchments.
According to Solidarity, Sibanye-Stillwater has no intention of negotiating in good faith and does not take into account the interests of its employees. Its focus is to prove to all parties involved in what poor financial position the company is instead of finding solutions or by paying its employees according to market-related remuneration.
“It is clear that the company is not prepared to act in the best interests of its employees. It pleads poverty and continuously proclaims poor financial performance and cash losses from the housetops its solution being to cut staff in the foreseeable future and to offer meagre increases rather than to change company management. We suggest that the company instead turns to business rescue to get it on the same sustainable growth trajectory as Harmony Gold and Gold Fields, ”says Gideon du Plessis, Solidarity’s general secretary.
According to Solidarity, other gold mine houses were more willing to negotiate with the same unions that are currently negotiating with Sibanye-Stillwater. The marginal Village Main Reef (VMR) signed a multi-year settlement in terms of which miners, artisans and officials will receive an increase of 5%, while category 4 – 8 employees will receive an increase of R800. The Harmony Gold settlement was even significantly higher. However, Sibanye-Stillwater offers far less than its peers, and Richard Cox, executive vice president for their gold operations, has been repeatedly quoted in the media and in internal communications claiming that the company could only grant increases of below the inflation rate.
Du Plessis points out that during negotiations Solidarity requested that there be a certain settlement percentage that could lead to a moratorium on retrenchments. However, Sibanye refused, indicating that no settlement would be able to prevent retrenchments.
“It is shocking that the company is by no means willing to step in to protect its employees. In reply to the same question from Solidarity Harmony Gold immediately indicated that the company undertakes thorough staff planning to be able to prevent any retrenchments. Sibanye-Stillwater simply refuses. It is for this reason that we insist on voluntary business rescue. An experienced business rescue practitioner may be all the mining house needs to review its top management's generous remuneration packages and put it back on track where sustainable growth is possible and where it can offer its workers the same remuneration and security as other mines.”
The last conciliation session under the supervision of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), will take place on 13 December. If the mining house does not want to place itself under business rescue, we request it not to oppose any applications for it, or better yet, that it would make use of this last opportunity to negotiate in good faith,” concludes Du Plessis.
Issued by Gideon du Plessis, General Secretary, Solidarity, 3 December 2021
