Johannesburg - South African bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti will hold back on job cuts announced last week and will instead redeploy most of the workers within the firm, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Tuesday.“We have reached an agreement with the company that the majority of the 849 workers will be redeployed in other parts of AngloGold, and the rest will be reskilled,” said NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu.
The company would not confirm that it had reached an agreement, however, but said it was in talks to mitigate job losses.
“This engagement is ongoing and it remains too early to pre-empt an outcome,” said AngloGold spokesperson Stewart Bailey.
Read also: NUM temporarily saves Anglogold Ashanti jobs
Tough safety measures and changing ownership rules have put bullion miners under pressure in Africa’s most industrialised economy as inflation gnaws at profits.
AngloGold had been contemplating the dismissal of as many as 849 employees on the basis of its operational requirements, a document showed last week.