While Ben Magara, the Lonmin chief executive, lamented the five-month platinum belt strike, Joseph Mathunjwa, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) president, said no employee would earn less than R8 000 a month after the strike.
The agreement will not necessarily solve the underlying issues of the mining industry, and the strike could set back South African mining investment by 10 years, according to analysts.
“It is not necessarily a time to celebrate. Clearly, there are no winners in this strike,” an emotional Magara told the media following the signing of the three-year wage agreement at Lonmin’s head office in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg.
Magara was flanked by chief executives Terence Goodlace of Impala Platinum (Implats) and Chris Griffith of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats).
About 70 000 Amcu members are expected to report to work today and full production is expected to resume within three months.
The signing brought an end to the country’s longest wage strike that has dented confidence and risked pushing the economy into recession.
Magara said the signing of the agreement signified the beginning of rebuilding the business relationships with workers and communities. It also allowed employees to get back to work to boost production and restock pipelines.
A few metres from the employers’ press conference, jovial Amcu regional and branch leaders and members sang songs to praise Mathunjwa and Amcu for fighting for so long.
Dali Mpofu, the lawyer representing Lonmin mineworkers at the Farlam Commission, Bishop Jo Seoka and James Nichol, the UK lawyer who volunteered to represent the families of the dead miners at the commission, were also present.
“No worker in the platinum sector will earn less than R8 000 as a basic salary, which is a breakthrough… Back pay will be paid in seven days,” Mathunjwa said, adding that this was a painful but necessary struggle for the lowest-paid employees.
“One of the achievements of the strike is qualitative gains in improving the socio-economic conditions of our members. In our view, this is a victory for all employees in the country.”
Mathunjwa said employers had committed not to lay off employees as they would focus on ramping up production.
“The commitment by the three producers is not to embark on restructuring because they need to stabilise the mines to bring them back to productivity. As far as we know, we have not received notice for retrenchments”.
The industry says it has forfeited R24 billion in revenue while employees lost R10.6bn.
“Investment opportunities in South Africa will need to be exceptional when compared to other countries in Africa,” said Kieron Hodgson, a commodities and mining analyst at Charles Stanley Securities.
In terms of the agreement, the lowest-paid employees will receive salary increases of R1 000 in each of the first two years of the agreement.
At Lonmin, the same increase will apply in the third year, whereas at the other two companies the increase in the third year will be R950.
Employees earning R12 500 a month or more will receive an 8 percent increase for the first year of the agreement and 7.5 percent thereafter in respect of Amplats and Implats; and an 8 percent increase for the first year and 7.5 percent for the next two years at Lonmin.
The living-out allowance will remain at its current level at Implats; at Lonmin, the living out allowance will increase in the first year and remain the same for the next two years; and at Amplats, the living out allowance will increase by 6 percent in the first year, and remain constant thereafter.
All employees will receive, within one week of their return to work, the back pay due to them from their 2013 increase date until January 22, 2014, the day prior to the start of the strike.
The platinum mining index fell 1.06 percent to 49.44 points on the JSE yesterday.