Angloplat 'blacklists workers'

The bad news around the corporate image of Anglo Platinum refuses to die down, with trade union Solidarity now preparing to bring charges against the world's largest platinum producer at the Human Rights Commission, Solidarity said on Wednesday.

Solidarity reckons Anglo Platinum keeps a blacklist of names of dismissed workers, which prevents them from being employed by any other mine in the company or with contractors providing services to the company.

Anglo Platinum contested the claim, but said it had no official overture from the union.

"We don't blacklist people," said spokesman Simon Tabele, "But the issue is this: it's logical, if people are dismissed they won't be hired by the company again."

Anglo Platinum would not stop anyone working for another company, he said. "We don't blacklist anybody from being employed by who ever. It's up to other companies whether they want to give them jobs or not," he said.

Solidarity is preparing to bring its arguments before the HRC next week and will contest that each of the Anglo Platinum mines is run as a separate business unit and that it appears "unnecessary" to blacklist workers dismissed at one mine to stop them joining another in the group, said Jaco Kleynhans, Solidarity's spokesperson.

The investigation will extend to other companies within the Anglo American group, which owns 78% of Anglo Platinum, to see if the blacklist extends to other mines in coal for example, Kleynhans said.

More concerns about Angloplat

The Solidarity statement comes hard on the heels of a damning report from international anti-poverty group ActionAid about Anglo Platinum's relations with communities around its mines. Again, the report was roundly dismissed by the company in a vigorous defence of its actions with communities in the Limpopo province.

Anglo Platinum said the report contained "many inaccuracies and distortions".

However, ActionAid is not the first to have raised concerns about these communities, with human rights lawyer Richard Spoor being vocal about the allegedly poor relationship between the company and communities, some of which have been removed from their land to make way for mines.

A report in June last year from a Christian non-governmental organisation called Bench Marks Foundation highlighted the effects on communities of platinum and chrome mining in the Northwest Province on the Western Limb of the Bushveld Complex.

The report was scathing of the impact mining has had on the lives of people living around those mines. It said the four major mining companies, Anglo Platinum, Impala Platinum, Xstrata and Lonmin Platinum, were responsible for depleting and polluting water sources, polluting the air and that their operations had "huge negative impacts on surrounding communities".

Anglo Platinum was singled out by Bench Marks, which said a health and safety inspectorate audit in 1999 of the world's largest platinum miner had found the company's preventative measures to reduce mine fatalities were inadequate and that safety measures were not enforced or adequately coordinated.

Again, Anglo Platinum strongly defended its efforts in safety.

However, it would appear Bench Marks had a point. Not long after the report came out then-CEO Ralph Havenstein resigned over the issue of safety within the company. Many saw the hand of new Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll steering him out the door as part of her strong drive to make the company a safer place to work.

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