Amplats, Impala up their offers to striking miners
IMPALA Platinum and Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) have increased their pay offer to striking workers in a bid to end a strike now in its record-breaking 13th week.
The world’s two biggest platinum miners are offering pay increases of between 7.5% and 10%, depending on job grades, which will lead to workers earning a minimum of R12 500 cash by July 2017.
This would include basic wages and holiday, living-out and other allowances, the companies said.
Amcu’s latest publicised demand has been for a basic wage of R12 500 within three years.
The union launched a strike fund this week, and appealed for assistance for workers, who have lost an estimated R6-billion in pay since the strike started on January 23.
In terms of the revised offer, the cost to company — which will include medical and retirement payments, overtime and bonus provisions — for the lowest-paid underground workers would rise to R210 000 a year by 2017, the companies said in separate statements.
Lonmin, which could not be reached for comment late on Thursday, is understood to have made a similar offer, although there might be differences in the implementation details.
Lonmin is seen as the most vulnerable of the three platinum majors because all its operations have been hit by the strike. Amplats is running at an estimated 60% capacity, and Impala at 40%.
The revised offers follow a meeting between the CEOs of the platinum companies, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant and Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa in Pretoria on Thursday. More meetings are scheduled for Tuesday.
Mathunjwa could not be reached for comment late on Thursday.
One fund manager said it was unlikely that Amcu would settle for anything less than increases of up to 9.5% and a R3 000 once-off payment spread over two years offered by Northam Platinum to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in January, which ended an 11-week strike.
Impala and Amplats urged Amcu and its members to “seriously consider the offer”, which they said they could “ill afford”. They said the concessions had been made “in good faith” in the interests of ending a strike “that has crippled the platinum sector and has brought untold hardship to employees, their families, communities and the companies”.
“Longer-term issues, such as labour migration and living conditions, will be handled through a joint team with the company,” Impala and Amplats said.
Though the platinum companies’ costs have increased because of the strike, affecting cash flow and balance sheets, they have been able to meet contractual orders.
Platinum prices have moved little in response to the strike, mainly because producers and customers had built up inventories in the run-up to the industrial action.
Demand has been relatively subdued, despite signs of improving conditions for European vehicle makers, the main buyers of platinum, said Tom Kendall, head of precious metals research at Credit Suisse.
The strike will, however, alter the future of platinum mining in Rustenburg, where companies have been cutting their investment in deeplevel, labour-intensive underground operations for some time.
Canadian banking group CIBC, which released an in-depth report on the state of platinum mining earlier this month, is predicting that most production at the older assets in the Rustenburg area will end within the next five to 10 years.
“Longer term, we see the strike having a significant effect on capital investments in the sector – driving the platinum group metals companies to find and develop only the ore bodies that will allow much lower labour complements, and mechanised mining layouts, and generate additional strong by-product credits,” CIBC said.
From Rustenburg, the focus would shift to the Bushveld complex’s northern limb, around the Mokopane area, and the eastern limb, around Lydenburg and Steelpoort, the Canadian banking group said.