Johannesburg - BHP Billiton [JSE:BIL] reached an agreement on Wednesday with the largest union at its Hotazel manganese mines in South Africa, ending a 12-day strike over bonus payments.
“This agreement means that all employees should report for duty starting from Wednesday 8th April,” the company said in an e-mailed statement.
BHP and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will hold more talks over the dispute, it said.
READ: Workers at BHP mine down tools over share scheme
NUM members walked out on March 27 over claims that BHP owed payments under share ownership programmes concluded in 2007 and 2012, the company said on April 2.
The strike ends before a planned spinoff of the manganese mines in the Northern Cape province into a new company called South32.
READ: BHP to spin off South32 with modest debt
BHP’s shareholders will vote on May 6 on the plan to unbundle 12 assets or ventures in five countries to South32. The demerger would see BHP relinquish all of its South African holdings, including coal and aluminum assets.