Polokwane – After several days of negotiations, trade union Solidarity and a business rescue practitioner have reached an agreement that would see retrenched Lily Mine workers receive their packages by the end of July.
Solidarity General Secretary Gideon du Plessis said in a statement on Wednesday that retrenched Lily Mine workers who applied for their packages would, according to the agreement, “receive salary payments until the end of May and that their salaries for the months of April and May will be paid out as soon as possible, but no later than June 30, 2016”.
He added: “Workers who were trapped underground at the time of the mining accident on February 5, 2016 will receive a goodwill payment of R50 000 by July 30, 2016.”
He said a total of R32 million was needed to pay the workers’ unpaid remuneration for the period February 2016 to end of May 2016.
“Although this agreement may bring short-term relief for the workers applying for it, the poverty into which the workers have already been plunged could worsen if urgent funding cannot be found to pay the packages and all the unpaid salaries of the workers,” Du Plessis warned.
He stated that almost 180 creditors for Lily Mine had also “voted in favour of the business rescue practitioner’s business plan this afternoon.
In terms of this plan, initial funding of approximately R200 million was needed to get the mine back into production by June 2017.
He said that according to the agreement, workers would “receive 100 percent of all the unpaid money and concurrent creditors will receive 30 cents in the rand.
“Payment should take place by the end of May 2017.”
African News Agency