Precious and battery metals producer Sibanye-Stillwater on Thursday evening confirmed that it was proceeding with the lockout of workers at its South African gold operations, with effect from 22:00 on March 10.

This follows after the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) served Sibanye with a strike notice earlier this week. The unions and Sibanye have been in negotiations and mediation over wage increases for months.

Sibanye said this was despite the company’s best efforts to reach a wage agreement that is fair, takes into account inflationary increases and ensures the sustainability of the South African gold operations.

"Although the company has made multiple moves within the positional bargaining negotiations, the union coalition has not moved materially from their initial demands and therefore the parties remain in deadlock," it noted.

The lockout would apply to members of all four representative unions – the NUM, AMCU, Uasa and Solidarity – despite some unions having accepted Sibanye's wage offer.

All employees, irrespective of bargaining unit or union affiliation – apart from those employees providing priority services as outlined in various collective agreements – had been informed not to report to the gold operations from 18:00 on Wednesday, March 9, .

The principle of ‘no work, no pay’ would apply to striking employees and locked out members of the bargaining units of the coalition unions.

“The offer we made is fair and inflation related and considers the sustainability of the South African gold operations. There are no winners in a strike. It is regrettable that unions have decided to resort to strike action which will severely impact all stakeholders,” said Sibanye South African gold operations executive VP Richard Cox.

Solidarity, which accepted Sibanye's wage offer, on March 9 said it would approach the Labour Court on an urgent basis to obtain an interdict against the lock-out of its members.