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'Unnecessary' strike cost Amplats R1bn

Johannesburg - Miners at Anglo Platinum [JSE:AMS] (Amplats) operations have started to return to work, a spokesperson said on Friday, after the company clinched a deal with the union to end a near two-week strike over job cuts.

Amplats said it would grant "voluntary separation" packages to 3 300 employees it had previously sought to lay off.

A spokesperson for Amplats told Reuters that miners had started reporting for duty from the morning shift on Friday. She declined to comment further.

Separately Amplats CEO Chris Griffith told a state radio station the strike had cost the world's top platinum producer 44 000 ounces or "nearly R1bn in lost revenue".

"These individuals were offered voluntary separation packages before the strike. They did not need to lose two weeks' wages, they did not need to go on strike," he told SAFM radio.

Amplats had already rowed back from an initial target of 14 000 job cuts under intense government and union pressure and still has to complete a tough round of wage talks.

Amplats was forced to review operations after last year's wildcat strikes helped push it into its first-ever annual loss. A return to profitability hinges on an overhaul of its Rustenburg mines, northwest of Johannesburg.


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