JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), on Friday threatened to embark on industrial action across all local operations of diamond giant De Beers.

This comes after the miner served workers with section 189 notices to inform them that 350 jobs at the Finsch mine, in the Northern Cape, would be shed. The union claimed that the company wanted to retrench workers without adhering to due processes.

The NUM representative Tshimane Montoedi alleged that the diamond miner had refused to adhere to a training lay-off scheme agreed to earlier and a social labour plan in line with South Africa's Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act.

In addition, he said that the miner would not implement certain recommendations made by Productivity SA.

"Productivity SA recommended that De Beers should tap into the R6,2-billion fund set aside by the Industrial Development Corporation for distressed companies...but again they refused.

"So now, not only is the company refusing to implement the recommendation, it also refuses to adhere to the social labour plan, and as a union, we will have to find a way to apply the [an] injury to one is an injury to all principle. That is why we will ask members to down tools at all of De Beers' operations," said Montoedi.

De Beers commented that it had extended its consultation period regarding the retrenchments with the union up to the end of this month, but stated that a concensus could not be reached. The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration had been part of five such consultation sessions.

The miner added that the NUM's proposed lay-off scheme would only be applicable were retrenchments were of a short-term nature and not a long-term nature, as was the case at the Finsch mine.

It added that it has also reduced the number of employees to be retrenched to 150, down from the intially planned 350.

The diamond miner had warned in May that 350 jobs out of 903 jobs at the Finsch mine could be shed.

At the time, it said that it was exploring intercompany transfers, voluntary early retirement, voluntary retrenchment packages and other opportunities to provide reasonable alternative employment for Finsch personnel.

De Beer's four remaining South African operations included: its flagship Venetia diamond mine in Limpopo province, Voorspoed in Free State province, Kimberley Mines in Northern Cape province and the South African Sea Areas marine mining offshore venture.

On Thursday, the diamond miner reported that it would review potential takeover offers for its troubled Finsch and Namaqualand mines.