JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Workers at Aurora Empowerment Systems' Grootvlei mine, in Springs, had still not been paid on Wednesday afternoon after several promises made by management.

Aurora MD Zondwa Mandela told Mining Weekly Online on Friday that the company would pay workers on Tuesday.

However, when contacted on Wednesday, Mandela said that some of the workers had been paid a portion of their salaries, but added that the East Rand was a "unique" situation, with different factors that had to be worked out.

More than 2 000 workers went on strike at Aurora's East Rand operations on March 19, over late payment of wages.

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka told Mining Weekly Online that workers had not received a cent at the company's Grootvlei mine, and that they would have to spend their Easter Weekend "penny-less".

Workers marched to Aurora's Grootvlei offices on Wednesday morning. Leshoka said that workers would continue to strike until all their demands were met.

The United Association of South Africa (Uasa) said that workers at the company's Orkney operations would also face a "somber Easter".

The union said that about 300 of its members had not been paid since September last year, while it claimed that its workers who belong to the NUM had been receiving their pay without interruption and accused the mine's management of preferential treatment of NUM members.

Uasa members are now threatening strike action.

Meanwhile, the Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) and NUM had also condemned the attitude the Aurora management in Orkney.

They claimed that management had been "intimidating, victimising and threatening" towards workers who had not been paid their salaries since January.

On Wednesday, NUM confirmed that Aurora paid 40% of the Orkney workers' salaries. "It has not paid the RMA, deferred pay, provident or pension fund and garnishee orders. Yet all these deductions have been made from workers' salaries since September 2009."

Cosatu and NUM members at Orkney had been on strike for four weeks.

The labour federation further said that it already had six meetings with Aurora's management to resolve the situation and emphasised that it would not partake in any more meetings until workers salaries had been paid in full.

"We have been very soft on the Aurora management for too long. It is about time to expose the type of management that Aurora has."

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