Johannesburg - Less than half of the workers at AngloGold Ashanti [JSE:ANG] and Sibanye Gold [JSE:AGL], the biggest producers of the metal in South Africa, now belong to the dominant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), according to the country’s mining lobby.
The NUM represents 47% of staff at AngloGold’s operations, with the rival Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) accounting for 35%, the Chamber of Mines said on Wednesday by email.
At Sibanye, 44% of workers were affiliated with the NUM and 38% with the AMCU by June 25.
While the NUM remains the majority union in the gold industry with 52% of employees, AMCU has risen to challenge it, benefitting the competing labour group in wage talks that began last month.
Gold companies will talk with both unions even though collective-bargaining laws allow a deal with the majority union to be applied to all employees.
READ: Gold producers: Union demands are unaffordable
The NUM represents two-thirds of staff at Harmony Gold [JSE:HAR] and the AMCU 15%, the mining lobby said.
An audit of 6 510 previously unprocessed union application forms submitted by the AMCU found 95% were invalid because of duplication or being for former employees, the chamber said.
“There was an agreement that AMCU and the companies will meet next week with independent oversight” to review the audit, Charmane Russell, a spokesperson for the chamber, told reporters on Wednesday.
Both unions rejected an offer by companies to raise annual pay as much as 13%, give staff a share of earnings and improve job security. The inflation rate was 4.6% in May.
The AMCU, led by former NUM member Joseph Mathunjwa, became the majority union in the platinum industry after 44 people died in violence in 2012. The union led a five-month strike last year, the country’s longest.