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Johannesburg - Some members of South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) rejected a pay hike of up to 17% by gold producers, a union source said on Monday, raising the threat of a sector-wide fallout after another union spurned the same offer.
Some members of NUM, the biggest union in the gold sector by membership, rejected the pay offer saying it was a cash allowance that could fall off after the period of the agreement lapses, the source told Reuters.
The NUM will meet with more of their members at two more meetings this week before officially meeting with the companies, represented by the Chamber of Mines, on Friday, the source said.
The gold companies, battling soft prices and escalating costs, made what they termed a "final offer" last week saying they could not afford to be squeezed any further by a rising wage bill.
The offer was also rejected by NUM arch rival the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) on Sunday, whose members said it was too low.
AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and Sibanye Gold [JSE:SGL] offered an additional R1 000 a month to entry-level workers, an increase of 17.5%, while Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] offered a R500 per month hike.
But that was purely cash and other company benefits related to the basic wage would not be topped up, the firms said.
The source said members of NUM were "angry" about the Harmony's lower offer, a sentiment echoed by an Amcu spokesperson on Sunday about his union's members.
