JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – More than 600 workers have downed tools at diversified miner Exxaro’s KwaZulu-Natal Sands (KZN Sands) operation, while more than 1 700 employees at Rio Tinto’s Richards Bay Minerals operation planned to start industrial action later this week.

Employees at both companies were protesting over wage increases.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said that workers at KZN Sands were seeking wage increases of 14%, while the employer was offering 8%.

“We further demand that the company should ban the use of labour brokers and offer a housing allowance of R2 000 a month,” said NUM KwaZulu-Natal regional coordinator Bhekani Ngcobo, adding that the strike would be indefinite.

Meanwhile, workers at the Richards Bay Minerals operation had been granted a certificate of nonresolution by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and the union would, on Tuesday, serve Rio Tinto with a 48-hour notice to strike.

The NUM was demanding a 10% wage increase in a one-year agreement.

Rio Tinto was hoping to conclude a three-year wage agreement, in terms of which it planned to increase wages by 8% in the first year, and by consumer price inflation plus 1,5% for the second and third years.

The union was also demanding an increase in the housing allowance for grade six to grade ten employees to R4 000 a month, up from the current R3 200 a month, and for grade 11 to grade 13 employees to R6 000 a month, up from the current R5 500 a month.

The industrial action by the NUM members came only two days after a wage agreement was finally settled between the union and Impala Platinum, after weeks of negotiations.