JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Retrenchments in the mining industry would be seen as a “last resort” in response to the global credit crunch, which has put over 9 000 South African mining jobs at risk.

This was the collective message from the government, trade unions, and industry representatives at a caucus, held this week in Pretoria.

The Chamber of Mines (CoM) of South Africa’s vice-president, David Noko, stated that the industry would act responsibly when it came to retrenchments, and that it was well aware of the mechanisms within the South African legislation that regulated the issues attached to retrenchments.

“Therefore, retrenchments shall be treated sensitively, and as a last resort.”

However, trade union Solidarity on Monday reported that it had received notice of a possible 9 163 retrenchments in the mining industry. “The fact is, this is not a problem that will come, it is a problem that is already here,” said Solidarity’s Dirk Hermann.

Platinum-miner Lonmin has already announced that some 5 500 workers might lose their jobs, while the future of around 1 700 workers at DRDGold South Africa’s East Rand Proprietary Mines must also still be determined.

Petra Diamonds also confirmed on Monday that it had issued a Section 189A notice to trade unions to start a consultation process over the future of just over 1 000 employees.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) pointed out that its priority was to defend jobs, and that it had hoped to receive a moratorium on retrenchments.

“But the conclusion of the meeting is that there is provision in the law, as it stands in South Africa. The meeting has accepted that retrenchments would be the last resort. It would be treated with sensitivity and extreme caution, given the hardships which workers, when they are retrenched, might face,” said NUM general secretary Frans Baleni.

The South African legislative regime, in relation to the protection of workers, is one of the strongest in the world, said Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) DG Sandile Nogxina.

“The Labour Relations Act is not only providing formidable protection to the employees who are being retrenched, it is also reinforced by the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act. If these two pieces of legislation are followed to the letter, definitely the interests of the workers would be taken into consideration.”

Baleni added that NUM would reserve the right to challenge companies that dismissed staff inappropriately, or that were noncompliant with the law. “It is not a given that we will embrace retrenchments, we will be exercising our rights, where possible, to defend those jobs.”

The DME also announced the establishment of a task team to investigate mitigating strategies to protect the local mining industry against the global economic crisis. The task team would be given 20 days to establish a framework around which measures could be taken.

The team would consist of representatives from the DME, the trade unions, and the CoM. “One role player on his own cannot solve this specific problem, and that is why we are quite positive about the fact that we all agree that we will work together,” said Solidarity’s Hermann.

Nogxina added that the task team would also be looking at positioning the mining industry to take advantage of an economic upturn, when it does take place. “It would be critical that we position our industry in such a way that it would be able to take advantage of the global economic upturn when it occurs. For that reason, we have agreed that this multistakeholder task team should formulate a response or plan as to how we are going to deal with that.”

Noko suggested that in an effort to preempt the next resources boom, the task team should be appointed to permanent positions to ensure industry growth.

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