Johannesburg - Mineworkers in the gold sector will at least in theory, have more cash in their pockets this year after their employers culled some Emolument Attachment Orders (EAOs) and helped them rearrange some debt as part of an exercise by mining firms to reduce the indebtedness of workers which ultimately comes to haunt their employers.
The intervention of employers, while at best noble, is also a self-preserving mechanism as financially stressed miners tend to demand more money from their employers.
“Companies and their contractors have reviewed EAOs to establish whether they in fact have been granted without irregularity – that they are for the right amounts and time periods, and that the correct procedures have been followed,” Charmane Russell, a spokeswoman for the companies at Russell & Associates, said. “Thousands of rands have been returned to employees, and many EAOs have also been significantly reduced.”
AngloGold Ashanti, Sibanye Gold, Harmony Gold Mining and Gold Fields are working together to challenge court orders that require them to dock workers’ wages and pay the money over to creditors.
The programme embarked on by the gold mining sector also includes financial wellness training which has been given to the workers prior to the festive season.
According to a University of Pretoria Faculty of Law research report, on the incidence of and the undesirable practices relating to garnishee orders in South Africa, 13.3 percent of mineworkers have judgments and administrative orders, 13.5 percent have adverse listings, 21.1 percent are three months and above in arrears and 14.2 percent are one or two months in the red.
“Some of these stop orders are shown to be illegal and we stop them, we are putting more money in the pockets of our employees,” Harmony Gold chief executive Graham Briggs said last week.
Russell said at this stage, no legal action had been taken against any lender but that some debt had been rearranged so that employees had a more affordable repayment plan.
“Hopefully, the thousands of employees who have gone through financial wellness training have not entered into additional debt this festive season, and are steering clear of loan sharks,” she added.
The two-pronged approach utilised by the mining firms at present includes educating the miners and their close partners on better financial management and avoiding pitfalls of debt, while on the other hand the employers work on unravelling strands of debt their workers are tied to.
Briggs said ridding miners of debt was among the lessons that came out of the 2012 strike in Marikana, as well as follow up programmes by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
It was found that the mineworkers tied themselves to unscrupulous money lenders who charged exorbitant interest rates which invariably ate up their disposable income, hence they became more militant in demanding high wage increases from employers.
The companies will from the beginning of the year work on challenging court orders that require them to dock workers’ wages and pay the money over to creditors.
“We cannot be our own collecting agency.” Briggs said.
Business Report