Johannesburg - The 12 000 miners fired from Anglo Platinum
[JSE:AMS] in Rustenburg have still not taken up the company's reinstatement
offer and have yet to return to work, NUM said on Tuesday.
"They are not back to work," said National Union
of Mineworkers' (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka.
However, negotiations were still underway on the terms of
their return, and attempts to have one of the amounts offered raised, he said.
Comment from the company was not immediately available.
On Monday, the company said it would provide an update,
where appropriate, and that its statement from Thursday was still valid.
In that statement, Amplats said its reinstatement offer was
strictly subject to all strikers returning to work and doing actual work
activities by no later than Tuesday, October 30.
"This offer, which has not yet been accepted by
employees, is still open."
The company had offered a once-off R2 000 "hardship
allowance" to help workers in financial difficulties due to the no-work,
no-pay principle.
Two weeks ago, the platinum producer said it met with unions to facilitate the return of the 12 000 dismissed workers, and those who were on an illegal strike at its Union and Amandelbult mines.
Amplats fired the 12 000 after they failed to appear for a
disciplinary hearing. They had been on a wildcat strike since September 12, in
demand of a minimum wage of R16 000 a month.
The Amplats offer was made in consultation with the NUM,
Uasa, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, Solidarity, and a strikers'
committee.
On Tuesday the SA Human Rights Commission said it would
investigate a report in The New Age that four non-striking workers at the
Amandelbult mine were forced to strip naked, apparently by mineworkers who had
been on strike, to punish them for reporting for work.
The newspaper published a photograph showing three men and a woman standing naked in front of a crowd.
SAHRC spokesperson Isaac Mangena told SAfm: "As the
commission, we will be taking up this matter."
He said: "We have mandated our Limpopo office to take up the matter at the mine and we basically call on the police to investigate this because this is clearly a criminal act."