Johannesburg - The National Union of Mineworkers (Num) on Monday threatened mass action over the national power crisis, saying mineworkers should not have to shoulder the costs.
It was responding to the warning issued by South Africa's second-largest gold producer Gold Fields (GFI) that the power constraints could result in as many as 6 900 jobs being lost at its operations alone.
The mining industry's largest union said it refused to engage with any company that gave power outages and output as the reasons for retrenchments.
"The Num is aware of what stories mining companies, Gold Fields in particular, are trying to come up with and would at all cost reject any proposals that seek to render people unemployed," the union said in a statement.
"We have repeatedly urged the companies, Eskom and government to come to the negotiating table to avert job shedding, and the companies argued that everything was well," it said.
Now the union is taking the matter to Cosatu's central executive committee, where it will be tabled at a meeting that will take place this week, said Frans Baleni, the general secretary of Num.
'Insults'
"We will mobilise our members to fight the insults coming from the industry. We will organise protest and mass actions to stop retrenchments in its track," cautioned Baleni.
Gold Fields briefed trade unions on the crisis on Friday and Saturday.
As of Monday morning Gold Fields suspended operations at its No 9 shaft at Driefontein, where 569 contractors employed by Murray & Roberts Cementation are to be laid off as a first step in cutting back the company's labour force by 13%.
South African mines have been operating at 90% of their normal average electricity supplies for close on a month, and they have been told to brace themselves for at least another five years of operations at these levels.
All of the gold majors have warned of the impact the power restrictions are likely to have on their production forecasts going forward.
Trade union Solidarity said it was ironic that Gold Fields had to cut back on staff at a time when the gold price was trading at its highest level ever.
"The only hope for the workers is an intervention by government to restore Gold Fields' electricity supply to its normal levels," said Solidarity mining spokesperson Reint Dykema.
"Gold Fields is, however, not the only victim - all the gold producers in the country are facing the same dilemma," he said.
AngloGold not cutting jobs yet
While Solidarity estimated that more than 15 000 workers could lose their jobs if Eskom could not provide the goldmines with their normal power needs, Efficient Group chief economist Dawie Roodt said the mining industry could shed between 60 000 and 80 000 jobs.
Harmony Gold Mining (HAR) confirmed earlier this month that it had reached an agreement with trade unions over offering workers voluntary retrenchment packages.
The gold producer retrenched 1 800 of its employees between September and December last year as jobs as part of its cost curtailment plans, but Amelia Soares, general manager of investor relations at Harmony, said the latest agreement with unions would focus on reducing the number of contractors and labour hire employed at its mines.
She said this would allow the company to fill the positions previously filled by contractors with its own employees. The company has already reduced the number of contractors at its mines by 2 000 to 5 000 people.
In the meantime, the country's largest gold producer AngloGold Ashanti has said it would not be cutting jobs yet.
It did, however, indicate that this might change if the power
restrictions remained in place for longer than anticipated.
- I-Net Bridge