In a departure from ‘business as usual’, the Chamber of Mines (CoM) had agreed to one-on-one discussions with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) ahead of this year’s crucial main collective bargaining negotiations, CoM CEO Bheki Sibiya told Mining Weekly recently.

Sibiya said that CoM had acceded to the request for a bilateral ahead of the main collective negotiations in response to a written request from NUM secretary-general Frans Baleni.

The CoM’s bilateral pre-engagement with the NUM would be followed by a multiparty pre-collective-bargaining engagement with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), Solidarity, Uasa and the NUM.

“We’re agreeable to all of these pre-engagements. We need to break away from ‘business as usual’ in our nego- tiations this year.

“We’re looking at the possibility of the one-on-one meeting with the NUM next week and the pre-collective-bargaining indaba within three weeks – the pressure being the need to start the main negoti- ations,” Sibiya said.

The main negotiations were expected to begin “in earnest” in the last week of June and then take their course.

“It will be thorough, more than expedient,” he said.

The underlying theme of the NUM’s proposal was the perceived need to break away from a ‘business-as-usual’ approach in this year’s crucial negotiations to manage high expectations.

The NUM’s demand of an entry-level minimum monthly wage of R7 000 for surface workers and R8 000 for underground workers in the gold mining industry equates to a 49% increase for surface workers, who currently earn an entry-level wage of R4 700 and a 60% hike on the R5 000 underground worker wage.

In calling for the bilateral, the NUM was seen to be implicitly acknowledging the emergence of AMCU, which had become the majority platinum-sector union.

Meanwhile, CoM president Mark Cutifani has welcomed President Jacob Zuma’s recent announcement regarding initiatives to support the mining industry.

Cutifani stated that the decision to mobilise key members of Cabinet, including Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan and Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant, to restore stability and certainty in the mining industry was indicative of government’s commitment.

“We are confident that the intervention by these Ministers, together with [Mineral Resources] Minister Susan Shabangu, will help to build the confidence of foreign investors in South Africa as an investment destination and guide the ongoing labour processes.”