Gold Fields' South Deep mine
Photo by: Creamer Media
A strike by National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) members at Gold Fields’ South Deep mine has entered its third week and is costing the company about R6-million a day.
The strike action started on November 2, with the union opposed to the planned retrenchments of more than 1 000 South Deep employees.
Gold Fields on Thursday said it has started paying out the retrenchment packages of the 1 082 affected employees, including payments for the 178 employees who took voluntary severance packages.
The gold miner added that it has engaged extensively with the national, regional and branch structures of the NUM to end the strike, but without success.
“There is nothing to gain in this strike. The company is not in a position to reverse the retrenchments, which are a critical component of [the] restructuring of the mine and essential to save the remaining 3 500 jobs,” commented Gold Fields CEO Nick Holland.
Gold Fields indicated in its third quarter operational update that no further gold production is expected from South Deep for the remainder of the year.