RUSTENBURG - Organised labour played a crucial role in discussions about jobs in the mining industry, the Minerals Council South Africa said on Friday.
"Any serious discussion about jobs in the absence of organised labour is not complete...if you want to retain jobs in the current economic climate, one of the option to consider is wage moderation and I know when we as business talk about that labour starts to see blood," said the Council's Motsamai Motlhamme.
Motlhamme was speaking at a breakfast session hosted by the labour department in the Rustenburg in the North West where organised labour was not represented. Labour department officials later said director general Thobile Lamati was expected to engaged with organised labour on Saturday.
Motlhamme said job creation was not possible without job retention.
"One of the biggest argument we are having under the job summit is, you cannot talk about job creation if your do not first talk about job retention because there is no point in trying to create 5 000 jobs when you are losing 30 000 jobs..." he said at the breakfast discussion of the department of labour in Rustenburg.