Precious and battery metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater says trade unions Uasa and Solidarity have unconditionally accepted the wage offer for employees of its South African gold operations and members of these two unions will, therefore, no longer be locked out of the workplace.
The remaining two unions forming the coalition, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), have not yet accepted the final offer made by the company and their members continue to be locked out of the workplace until such time as they accept the offer.
“We are pleased that Solidarity and Uasa have now unconditionally accepted our final offer, which we continue to believe is fair and in the interests of all stakeholders.
"This is positive progress in the wage negotiation process, and we are hopeful that both AMCU and the NUM will soon follow suit to avoid further consequences for employees and other stakeholders from strike action that we know is not popular among the workforce,” says Sibanye CEO Neal Froneman.
Solidarity has welcomed Sibanye's decision to lift the lockout of its members, but the union says it is a pity that it was forced to approach the courts to force Sibanye to make the right decision.
“Sibanye-Stillwater’s actions of the past week took place in bad faith and indicated a weak approach to labour relations: Firstly, Solidarity’s members were locked-out after accepting the wage offer and despite confirmation by Sibanye's chief negotiator that this would not happen; secondly, the illegal lock-out was implemented prematurely; and thirdly, Sibanye tried to gain more time by advancing questionable arguments in the legal proceedings,” Solidarity chief negotiator Gideon du Plessis comments.