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Johannesburg - The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has allegedly threatened human resources officers working for Anglo Platinum (Amplats) [JSE:AMS], the platinum mining company said on Friday.
Amplats said it had received information that Amcu was planning to attack its human resource staff, sent to talk directly to mineworkers about the latest wage offer.
"We remain concerned about the safety of our employees who are on the ground, and the striking employees wishing to return to work," spokesperson Mpumi Sithole said.
"We will continue working hand in hand with authorities to maintain peace and calm."
The company sent a letter with the allegations to Amcu. Its chief negotiator Jimmy Gama said he knew nothing of such a letter.
"No, I'm not aware of such a letter," he said in an sms.
Amplats said on Wednesday it was taking its latest wage offer directly to its employees across Southern Africa following several failed attempts to end the strike by talking to Amcu.
"We have been hosting a series of mass meetings in Rustenburg, which began last week, and have started in labour-sending areas - the Eastern Cape, Lesotho and Mozambique - this week to engage directly with our employees on the revised offer we have tabled," Sithole said at the time.
She encouraged strikers to interact with the company's human resources managers, who would discuss and explain the offer in detail.
Amcu members at Amplats, Lonmin [JSE:LON] and Impala Platinum (Implats) [JSE:IMP] downed tools on January 23, demanding a basic salary of R12 500 a month.
The companies offered Amcu a settlement on April 17. They tabled a wage increase offer of between 7.5% and 10%.
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.
Amcu rejected the offer, made to end the more than three-month-long strike in the platinum sector.
Impala and Lonmin announced on Friday that they were also talking directly to their employees about the offer.
"We are still in the process of communicating with our employees, and will only have a clear picture sometime next week," Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said.
"Early indications are that at least two-thirds of people who have responded so far are willing to return to work based on the settlement offer."
Lonmin said it was communicating "as widely as possible" to ensure employees understood the offer.
"We are using sms, [a] call centre, adverts in local papers, live reads on local radio, etc, in an effort to ensure employees receive the information, whether they are staying locally around the operations, or... in their home countries or provinces," spokesperson Sue Vey said.
