adminJohannesburg. — A strike at Anglo American Platinum Ltd ended after the world’s biggest producer of the metal and the largest union at its South African operations reached a compromise over plans to cut as many as 3 100 jobs.The company known as Amplats will re- open applications for voluntary severance packages for seven days, AMCU president Joseph Mathunjwa told reporters yesterday in Rustenburg, 130km northwest of Johannesburg.
The AMCU estimates that the total number of job cuts will be brought down by 1 336 through reopening the process after previous applications weren’t granted, he said.
“The way we see it, there will be no forced retrenchments,” Mathunjwa said. “If we had gone to the Labour Court, we wouldn’t have achieved this.”
The agreement ends a strike that started on September 27 and cost the company 3 100 ounces of lost platinum-group metals output daily.
The AMCU had challenged Amplats’ decision set out in August to consolidate five mines into three at its Rustenburg complex in a bid to boost profit.
The operations are losing more than 1 billion rand every six months, chief executive officer Chris Griffith said on July 22. Amplats spokeswoman Mpumi Sithole declined to comment when contacted by phone.
About 1 200 people that would have been dismissed and then hired as contractors to take care of the closed mines will be retained as full-time staff for at least six months, Mathunjwa said. — Bloomberg.
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