Johannesburg - Job losses are looming in the South African mining industry as producers lose millions of rands due to rolling power cuts, trade union Solidarity said on Monday.
"Companies are losing millions of rands. Companies might start retrenching workers in order to make up for the losses," said Jaco Kleynhans, Solidarity spokesperson.
His comments come amid a power crisis that escalated last week and forced top mining companies to halt local output, a move that is believed to cost the industry about R200m a day.
Most mines have been closed since Friday. On Monday, companies including DRDGold, Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti and Harmony Gold were still not producing or were only partly producing.
Kleynhans said that the union was drawing up a rescue plan for the social crisis that would be brought by the imminent job losses, but declined to disclose any details.
"We are already drawing up a rescue plan for workers who might be retrenched. We will make an announcement with that regard in due course," he said.
The National Union of Mineworkers also feared job losses were on the cards as the industry struggled with power cuts, which government termed a "national emergency" last week.
"Obviously, companies would shed jobs to cover up for the losses incurred in the past few days," said an NUM official, who declined to be named.
He added that the union was meeting with government top officials in the Department of Minerals and Energy and the Department of Public Enterprises on Tuesday to discuss a "rescue plan" for workers.
The mining industry is a major employer in South Africa, with workers employed in the sector topping 450 000 as at May last year.
Other energy-intensive sectors such as steel makers are feeling the effects of the power cuts, with industry body the Steel and Engineering Industry Federation of SA saying the impact was "severe" and that smaller companies might be put out of business if power cuts continued in the next few months.
State-owned power utility Eskom said nationwide load-shedding or
controlled power cuts to reduce demand by about 20% would continue for between five and eight years.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa said that it was calling for a national rescue plan after its members complained that their pay was being docked when workplaces had their power cut off.
"We have come up with a rescue plan for workers, which we will discuss with government, Eskom, Solidarity and the employers," said Mziwakhe Hlengani, NUMSA's spokesperson.
He could not say what the plan entailed, but it would attempt to ensure that workers did not lose their salaries for a prolonged period of time.
An agreement was reached between the unions and employers that in the event of a blackout, employers had an option of sending workers home and paying them a minimum of four hours wages per day.
But the blackouts no longer happened once a week, but had escalated out of control, with workers unable to handle three to four days a week on four hours' salary, said Hlengani.
However, Hlengani said he did not anticipate any job losses, saying it would be "making a mountain out of a molehill".
- I-Net Bridge