adminJohannesburg — Anglo Platinum (Amplats) is taking its latest wage offer directly to its employees across Southern Africa, the company said on Wednesday. “We have been hosting a series of mass meetings in Rustenburg which began last week and have started in labour sending areas i.e the Eastern Cape, Lesotho and Mozambique this week to engage directly with our employees on the revised offer we have tabled,” Amplats spokesperson Mpumi Sithole told Sapa.
She encouraged the striking miners to interact with the company’s human resources managers who would discuss and explain the offer in detail.
On Tuesday, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) rejected the latest wage offer made by platinum companies to end the more than three-month long strike in the platinum sector.
The union’s treasurer Jimmy Gama confirmed to Sapa in an sms that the union had turned down the latest wage offer from Amplats, Lonmin, and Impala Platinum (Implats).
“It is correct [that the latest offer] has been rejected. It is up to the employers whether they are prepared to revise their offer and come to the table.”
He said it was up to the employers whether they wanted to return to the negotiating table, with it being unknown when the two sides would meet again.
On Sunday, it was reported that Amcu was consulting its members on the latest offer.
Amcu members at the three companies’ mining operations in Rustenburg in North West, and Northamin Limpopo, downed tools on January 23, demanding a basic salary of R12,500 per month.
The platinum producers tabled a wage increase offer of between 7.5 percent and 10 percent.
The proposed offer, which was rejected, would have seen the minimum cash remuneration for entry-level underground workers rise to R12,500 a month or R150,000 per annum by July 2017.
A meeting between the platinum producers and the union deadlocked yesterday, with Amcu accusing the companies of “complete intransigence and games of smoke and mirrors”. — Sapa
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