Sibanye halts Beatrix ops amid union conflict
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Dual-listed Sibanye Gold has halted operations at its Beatrix North and South shafts after union rivalry led to nine employees being injured on Thursday.
Sibanye on Friday said a conflict had broken out between members of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Thursday afternoon.
After having verified applications for AMCU membership from its Beatrix employees in recent months, Sibanye had confirmed that AMCU met the minimum threshold for minority recognition status at Beatrix.
The company had agreed to AMCU holding a mass meeting at Beatrix, on February 5, to get a mandate from union members for it to sign the minority recognition agreement.
While AMCU members were gathering and preparing to proceed to the mass meeting, a conflict broke out between AMCU and NUM members.
Sibanye management and members of the Sibanye Gold Protection Services intervened and separated the rival groups.
No serious injuries were reported, but the nine injured employees were taken to hospital for treatment.
The situation remained tense on Friday, prompting management to suspend operations at the Beatrix North and South shafts while it attempted to restore calm and reintegrate the rival groups.
“We have high health and safety standards which we will not compromise. As such, we will not expose any employee to the risk of violence and, as a result of this regrettable hostility between the unions, we have decided to suspend operations at Beatrix until peace and order has been restored.
“I urge [the] AMCU and NUM leadership to work together with us to intervene and normalise this situation in the interest of the safety of their members,” Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman said in a statement.
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