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Johannesburg - Mining union Amcu has applied for an urgent court interdict to stop platinum mines from communicating a new wage offer directly to workers, Sake-Beeld reported on Wednesday.
The application by the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union was filed in the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Monday.
It wants the court to stop the three mining companies Lonmin [JSE:LON], Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS] and Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] from directly contacting some 70 000 workers.
The mines have been communicating directly with their employees for the past two weeks to convince them to accept a new wage offer made in April.
This came after the employers' talks with Amcu leaders deadlocked.
Amcu argued in court papers that the SMS campaign and pre-recorded phone messages to workers from the companies breached the recognition agreement with the mining union.
The court will hear the application on Tuesday.
Amcu members at Lonmin, Impala Platinum, and Anglo American Platinum in Rustenburg and at Northam in Limpopo downed tools in January demanding a basic monthly salary of R12 500.
The strike has cost the companies about R14bn in revenue and workers have lost over R6bn in earnings.
Lonmin warned that it might implement restructuring that could lead to job losses if striking mineworkers failed to return to work on Wednesday.
The company set Wednesday as the deadline for employees to end the almost four-month-old strike.
The companies offered Amcu a settlement on April 17. They tabled a wage increase offer of between 7.5% and 10%t.
The proposed offer would have seen the minimum cash remuneration for entry-level underground workers rise to R12 500 a month, or R150 000 a year, by July 2017.
