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Johannesburg - Differences over possible job cuts in South Africa's platinum mines emerged on Tuesday as the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Unionmining (Amcu) prepared to sign a three-year wage deal with the world's top producers of the metal to end a crippling five-month strike.
Amcu on Monday declared an end to the longest and costliest strike in South African history.
The union said its 70 000 striking members would return to work at Anglo American Platinum [JSE:AMS], Impala Platinum [JSE:IMP] and Lonmin [JSE:LON] this week.
But signs of disagreement emerged over whether the wage deals covered the issue of future job cuts.
"The companies have committed to no retrenchments," Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa told Reuters. He added this commitment was going to last for the duration of the three-year deal to ensure productivity is not interrupted.
But an industry source told Reuters "the producers are absolutely not committed to that. It's not true."
Lonmin spokesperson Sue Vey said she was not aware of any "no job cuts" clause in the wage deal.
The companies, which have lost over R24bn in revenue as a result of the strike, have said the stoppage makes restructuring and shedding of jobs inevitable.
Job cuts are a thorny issue in South Africa with an unemployment rate of close to 25%, and Amcu members in the past have gone on wildcat strikes to protest planned job losses at Amplats.
The exact timing of the signing of the agreements on Tuesday was not immediately clear but Amcu was due to hold a news conference in Johannesburg in the afternoon.
Under the populist battle cry of a "living wage", Amcu had initially demanded that basic wages of miners be more than doubled immediately to R12 500.
In the end, its members settled for three-year deals that amount to increases of around 20% annually.
