RUSTENBURG – At least 174 workers at Bafokeng Rasimone Platinum Mine (RBplat) in Rustenburg have been retrenched, the company said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Mpueleng Pooe said the retrenchment was due to the challenging market conditions affecting the mining industry.

"Royal Bafokeng Platinum has not been immune to the impact of these challenging conditions," he said, adding that it was highlighted at the presentation of the company's interim results how the business had been affected.

The presentation was on August 4.

"Like the rest of the industry, we have had to re-look at the business and re-engineer and reposition it in response to these economic conditions to continue to drive towards operational excellence and long term sustainability."

He said consultation with unions started on August 5.

"This called for Section 189(3) and 189 to be implemented in consultation with our unions, National Union of Mineworkers and Uasa, which resulted in two agreements being reached, namely retrenchment agreement and sustainability agreement.

He said in terms of the retrenchment agreement, the parties agreed on specific criteria to select the retrenched employees, and also agreed to endeavour to retain the necessary skills for the operations to continue, and also to exempt from the selection criteria any employees who had participated in the RBPlat Home Ownership Scheme.

"Employees were informed of these consultations on 4 September 2015 and were again informed when discussions were concluded on 21 September 2015, and advised that letters would be sent to the affected individuals," he said.

The affected employees received their notices of termination after the consultation process was concluded.

"They received one month notice however were released from duty to enable them to seek new employment opportunities, and will be paid for the notice month. As they are still currently employees of RBPlat, they are allowed and encouraged to discuss concerns and seek assistance from the company representatives as they require."

News24.com