Lonmin grants rights to Amcu

A mine worker is seen underground at Lonmin's Karee mine in Rustenburg. File photo: Reuters

A mine worker is seen underground at Lonmin's Karee mine in Rustenburg. File photo: Reuters

Published Jun 3, 2013

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Johannesburg - Lonmin has agreed to grant union threshold rights to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu), shutting rival National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) out of collective bargaining, Business Day newspaper reported on Monday.

Lonmin’s human resources head Abey Kgotle told Business Day that the company agreed during negotiations at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) that it would set threshold rights of 35 percent for basic rights and 45 percent for collective bargaining and rights to full-time shop stewards.

Rights for a majority union would stand at 50 percent.

A trade union would need to achieve these levels of representation in the workforce for it to enjoy the specified rights.

Amcu currently represented 70 percent of unskilled workers and machine operators in bargaining unit one, Business Day reported.

This meant that the NUM would not have organisational rights among the low-skilled workers.

Lonmin operations had been a battleground between Amcu and the NUM, whose members now made up only 20 percent of the workforce. - Sapa

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