Sibanye-Stillwater rises as court halts Amcu advance |
Shares rise 3% after firm granted right to extend wage agreement
SIBANYE-Stillwater rose nearly 3 percent on Wednesday after the Labour Court dealt the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) another blow, ruling that the precious metals company would be within its right to extend the wage agreement it signed with three unions to Amcu members.
The court said the extension of the agreement was legally binding, giving Sibanye-Stillwater further leverage to halt Amcu’s crippling four-month wage strike at the company’s gold mines.
Amcu has led 10 000 members on the crippling wage strike since November last year to demand a R1 000 a month wage hike over three years.
The union made the demand despite Sibanye-Stillwater signing a R700 a month wage hike with the biggest union in the company, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Solidarity and the United Association of South Africa (Uasa).
Sibanye-Stillwater said on Wednesday that it would now begin and participate in an independent verification process to confirm the various unions’ level of representativity required to implement the extension agreement.
Chief executive Neal Froneman said the judgment provided clarity to all parties on the legal standing of the application of the extension of the wage agreement to Amcu in terms of Section 23 of the Labour Relations Act.
“Furthermore, it provides a clear path forward to resolving the ongoing strike in a manner which does not compromise our values or undermine our other stakeholders, who have also been negatively impacted by the Amcu strike action,” said Froneman.
Section 23(1)(d) of the Labour Relations Act contemplates the extension of a collective agreement to members of a union that are not party to that agreement.
Sibanye is still reeling over the rise in palladium prices, which reached their highest-yet prices this week.
Amcu approached the court to be excluded from the wage agreement with other unions.
The strike at Beatrix, Kloof and Driefontein mines has claimed nine lives with 65 houses being torched, according to the Department of Mineral Resources.
Amcu also had to back down from its plan to lead a secondary strike aimed at shutting down the mining industry after mining houses successfully obtained interdicts declaring the secondary strikes to be unprotected.
Legal firm Webber Wentzel said on Wednesday that the successful interdicts had helped avoid R2 billion in potential financial losses.
It also said Amcu’s secondary strike plan was a first for the country’s legal system.
“This is the first time that the Labour Court had had to consider a campaign of secondary strikes called for by a trade union across a particular industry.
“The court set an important precedent regarding such a campaign in holding that the reasonableness requirement was not met,” the firm said.
Webber Wentzel said it had received instructions from 13 mining houses. However, after strike notices were withdrawn at seven of these, it had helped the remaining six mining houses with strike interdict proceedings in the Labour Court.
On Monday, the Labour Court also dismissed Amcu’s application to interdict the Section 189A consultation process at its local gold operations, which was announced in February.
Sibanye launched a formal process to restructure its unprofitable gold mines, Beatrix 1 in the Free State and numbers 2, 6, 7 and 8 at Driefontein.
Potentially 6 670 jobs are on the line as the mines employ 5 870 people and a further 800 contractors.
Sibanye closed 1.09 percent higher at R16.74.