The Association of Mineworkers and Construc-tion Union (AMCU) is await- ing a Labour Appeal Court judgment on representativeness and the extension of collective bargaining agreements to minority unions by an employers’ association.

During 2013 wage negotiations, AMCU sought clarity from the Labour Court on its right to strike at individual mines where it was the majority union.

The Labour Court ruled, however, that a union required a majority at company level, not just at individual mine level. In August this year, AMCU appealed the ruling.

AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa said at a media briefing in Johannesburg last week that if the ruling went against it, the union would take the matter on appeal to the Constitutional Court.

“Without delving into the merits of the matter under consideration by the Judge President of the Labour Court, the current labour law dispensation only allows bargaining councils to extend agreements to nonparties and not employers’ associations like the Chamber of Mines (CoM).

“This matter, which is sub judice, has far-reaching consequences in the current dispute under way in the gold sector. The matter is, however, a tipping point in the collective bargaining landscape. We hope that workers will not suffer the double jeopardy of being paid low wages and also being prohibited to exercise their constitutional right to strike on a technicality that serves to protect the interests of monopoly capital,” he stated.

Mathunjwa also demanded that the Judge President of the Labour Court deliver a judgment on its case “forthwith”.

“Justice delayed is justice denied. This judgment will enable the union to determine future processes regarding the gold negotiations with greater clarity. Further delays pertaining to this judgment perpetuate uncertainty in the industry and the economy as a whole,” he asserted.

In response to a question from Mining Weekly on whether AMCU had sufficient numbers to declare a protected strike at gold miner Sibanye Gold’s operations, as according to the CoM, AMCU only represented 42% of workers at Sibanye’s bargaining unit, he said: “We know for a fact that these numbers are false and that AMCU represents the majority of workers at Sibanye. The fact that Sibanye has not signed the proposed gold-sector wage agreement, is a clear sign that they know for sure AMCU is the majority union.”