JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Tuesday that it was demanding a 20% wage increase from world number-two platinum-miner Impala Platinum (Implats).

The above-inflation wage demand from platinum workers is more than the 15% wage increase that workers in the gold and coal mining sectors are demanding from employers.

NUM spokesperson Lesiba Sheshoka explained that the union was demanding a 20% increase to bring entry-level wages to R5 000 a month, as workers had to deal with higher food and transport costs.

“An increase is only huge if the basic wage is high. Twenty per cent of what they are earning is quite small,” he said.

The NUM also wants Impala’s pension fund contributions to increase to 25%, from the current 16,5%.

South Africa’s biggest mineworkers union said that it would ask that the wage-agreement duration be reduced to one year, instead of the current two-year deal, when negotiations start on June 17.

In 2007, when the previous wage agreement was concluded, the NUM had asked for a 15% wage increase, but after two months of negotiations, the union settled for an increase of between 8% and 10% for the first year, and between 7,25% and 8,5% for the second year.

Other demands include that Implats reduce the working week hours to 40-hours, that workers be granted ten-days family responsibility leave and six-months maternity leave.

The NUM also wants Implats to provide a transport subsidy of R2 500 to all employees.

An Implats spokesperson confirmed that the NUM had submitted its wage demands, and said that a preliminary meeting would take place next week.

The NUM would submit its wage demands to larger rival Anglo Platinum later this month, Seshoka said.

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