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Johannesburg - The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has signed a three-year wage agreement with gold miner Sibanye Gold, the union said late on Wednesday.
This agreement is effective from 1 of July 2015 to 30 June 2018. The Chamber of Mines was negotiating on behalf of Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL].
Sibanye is, however, yet to agree on a deal with the Association of Mineworkers and Construction (Amcu). Amcu, the second largest union in the gold sector, has said that it is ready to call a strike at gold operations.
Other major unions in the sector are Solidarity and United Association of South Africa (UASA). NUM, Solidarity and UASA earlier this month also accepted three-year wage agreements with AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and Harmony [JSE:HAR].
Amcu rejected the offers and obtained certificate of non-resolution from the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)
“The NUM wishes to express its sincere gratitude to its members at Sibanye Gold for the manner in which they behaved during the negotiation period until they gave us the mandate to sign this wage agreement. Our members are excited and they gave us the mandate to sign the wage agreement,” said David Sipunzi, NUM General Secretary.
"The pressure that the NUM exerted to Sibanye Gold through the rolling mass actions to force the company and the Chamber of Mines to sign the wage agreement has yielded good results for our members," Sipunzi said.
In terms of the agreement, low category workers and low category officials will get annual increases of between R675 and R725 in the next three years. Wages of miners, artisans and officials will increase by 6% in each of the next three years.
NUM said the negotiations took five months to complete, making them the longest wage negotiations in the history of the union and the Chamber of Mines.
Sibanye Gold's share price climbed 2.41% to R22.53 in early trade on Thursday, outperforming peers Harmony (+0.49% to R10.20) and Anglogold Ashanti (+0.61% to R117.24).
