Trade union Solidarity said on March 9 that it would approach the Labour Court on an urgent basis to obtain an interdict against the lock-out of its members at diversified miner Sibanye-Stillwater’s South African gold mines.

This comes after Solidarity members received a notice informing them that they would be locked out of the workplace despite Solidarity’s acceptance of Sibanye’s wage offer and Sibanye negotiators having allegedly given an undertaking to Solidarity that this would not happen.

While Solidarity and Uasa have accepted Sibanye’s wage offer, the National Union of Metalworkers and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union have served a strike notice on Sibanye.

“In terms of the lock-out notice, the majority of members of all the unions involved have to accept an offer before a settlement can be reached. This implies that Solidarity’s members who have accepted the offer will also be locked out, and the principle of no work, no pay will apply,” said Solidarity mining, agriculture and chemicals industry deputy general secretary Riaan Visser.

Solidarity contended that the move to lock out Solidarity members amounted to Sibanye “punishing and bullying its loyal employees”, accusing the company of having “lost its moral compass”. 

“The unions have been clearly and formally engaging as a collective throughout the extended negotiation period and the majority of the unions have not accepted our final offer.

“We are taking this action to bring a resolution to the dispute which requires a majority decision from the coalition members,”  Sibanye investor relations senior VP James Wellsted told Mining Weekly in response to Solidarity’s statements.

Visser contended that the action taken by Sibanye was indicative of why the company was facing an unprecedented second consecutive strike following a previous strike in 2019, which he said was an indication of the company’s poor labour relations.

“Sibanye’s culture of contempt for employees is also one of the main reasons why the company was the most dangerous mining house in the industry to work for in 2021,” he added.

Sibanye recorded 18 deaths across its operations last year. Several more fatalities have followed since January.

“Sibanye’s executives will have to reflect on how the company has lost its moral compass under its management and that . . . the company now also does not respect employees’ right to accept a wage offer,” Visser said.

Solidarity has called on Sibanye to reconsider its “immoral decision”, claiming that its members “have the interests of the company at heart, [but] are being treated with contempt”.