The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) signed a substantive three-year wage agreement with platinum producer Northam Platinum last month at the company’s Zondereinde mine, in Limpopo.

The NUM represents the majority of the mine’s employees in bargaining unit categories two to eight and nine to ten. The agreement, signed on July 30, will apply to all Northam employees in the bargaining unit.

The agreement – effective from July 1, 2015, to July 1, 2017, provides for increases in basic wages and allowances of 13% for entry-level underground employees in year one, 11.6% in year two and 10.5% in year three.

With immediate effect, the basic monthly minimum rate of employees in bargaining unit categories two to eight is set to increase by R1 000 to a minimum of R6 981 a month for above-ground workers and R7 256 a month for underground workers. These amounts will again increase by R1 000, effective on July 1 of each year until 2017.

The living-out allowance of employees in bargaining unit categories two to eight will increase by 6% each year. This translates into an immediate increase from R2 614 to R2 771, eventually increasing to R3 115 by 2017.

Also with immediate effect is the basic monthly minimum rate of the employees in bargaining unit categories nine to ten. The rate will incrementally increase yearly by either R1 000 or 7.5%, depending on which figure is the highest, until 2017.

Further, the hostel allowance payable to hostel residents when taking annual leave will also increase by 6% a year for the duration of this agreement.

Further, the NUM and Northam agreed that the one-off payment for contract termination on medical grounds would be increased from R15 000 to R20 000. This amount will be paid, provided that the employee had not been compensated previously in this regard, except in the case of incapacity as a result of a mine accident.

The parties also agreed that, with immediate effect, employees dismissed because of medical incapacity will make the name of a family member available as a replacement, and that employees going on maternity leave on or after August 1, 2015, will receive paid leave for the first three months.

Paternity leave will increase to seven calendar days paid leave; however, reasonable proof, such as a birth certificate, must be submitted by the employee upon return to work.

“The NUM wishes to express its sincere gratitude to its members at Northam Platinum for the manner in which they behaved during the negotiation period until they gave us the mandate to sign this substantive agreement,” said NUM chief negotiator at Northam Ecliff Tantsi after the signing last month.

He stated that the NUM “had to use its maturity and skill in engaging the company robustly, which then resulted in such a beneficial agreement”, adding that this is a substantive agreement that also includes an employee stock ownership plan (Esop) and a housing strategy, besides other aspects.

NUM members at Northam Platinum were pleased and excited that the wage agreement was concluded without any strike, violence, intimidation and loss of life, the NUM said in a statement.

Meanwhile, in April, the NUM publicly criticised Northam’s R6.6-billion black economic- empowerment (BEE) transaction on the basis that the union was not consulted before any decisions were taken.

The transaction, which was approved in March, secured 31.4% new black ownership in Northam, raising Northam’s total black ownership to 35.4%.

In addition, the NUM criticised the distribution of the BEE transaction, arguing that the majority of shares were unjustly assigned to BEE consortia instead of workers’ trusts.

Under the BEE agreement, Northam’s Esop trust, established for the benefit of Northam’s current and future employees, was assigned 9.6% of the R6.6-billion allocation, while the Booysendal and Zondereinde community trusts were collectively assigned 15.9% of the R6.6-billion.