Johannesburg - The largest union at Northam Platinum, owner of the deepest mine for the metal, said it would would meet management for talks as revenue losses in an almost four-week pay strike near R400-million.
South Africa’s Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration will facilitate a meeting between the company and the National Union of Mineworkers to end an impasse over wages that culminated in almost 7 000 employees going on strike from November 3 at the Zondereinde mine, Ecliff Tantsi, the NUM’s chief negotiator at Northam, said on Friday by phone.
“It’s quite difficult to get a sense of how much Northam has lost in earnings,” Justin Froneman, an analyst at SBG Securities in Johannesburg, said by phone. “We know they’re getting close to R400-million in revenue, but at the same time taken bottom-line costs out,” Froneman said, referring to unpaid wages.
The NUM, which represents about 80 percent of employees at the mine, has demanded an average pay increase of 61 percent. The outcome of the Northam strike will set a precedent for wage talks at larger producers, including Anglo American Platinum, according to Investec and Stanlib Asset Management. The companies mine most of their metal in South Africa, which has the world’s largest known reserves of platinum.
Northam offered pay increases of between 8 and 9 percent to end a strike that was costing the company about R14-million in lost revenue daily, it said on November 25.
Northam spokesmen weren’t immediately available for comment. - Bloomberg