Johannesburg - Approximately 800 workers face retrenchment at BHP Billiton's Bayside aluminium smelter in Richards Bay, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) said on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said company management confirmed that it would be issuing final notices to the affected workers at the weekend and the retrenchments would be effected on April 1.

The development follows Eskom's demand that big electricity consumers reduce their power consumption by 10%.

He said the drastic decision to lay off metalworkers took place at a time when Numsa had made earnest appeals to the African National Congress (ANC) and the minerals and energy parliamentary committee to intervene as planned retrenchments were connected to the countrywide power crisis.

Negative results

Rather than ensuring that other feasible alternatives were considered - such as buying big industrial power generators - the resources company once intimated that it planned to relocate its smelters to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the union charged.

Numsa said it had always been aware that the closure of smelters in the town would affect more than 20 000 families. And, for that reason the union called on government and other stakeholders to urgently adopt a social plan, because the area would be negatively affected.

BHP Billiton spokesperson Bronwyn Wilkison said negotiations were continuing over the issue between the company, the workers and the union.

"We are trying to minimise the impact on workers... some will be redeployed," she said.

She said the company issued a statement some time ago stating that 400 workers and 500 contractors might be affected, but consultations over the matter was still going on.

- Sapa