Unions reject wage offer

Johannesburg - Trade unions have rejected a revised offer made by the Chamber of Mines, Trade union Solidarity said on Tuesday.

"This offer was linked to a gain-share scheme. All the relevant trade unions rejected the principle of gain-share, and proposed that it be referred to a task team for fine-tuning with a view to future negotiations," general secretary Gideon Du Plessis said in a statement.

The revised offer was for employees in the gold mining industry to receive an increase of 5.5%.

Du Plessis said the trade union had, however, indicated it would make further concessions if the Chamber could guarantee a better offer.

"'The Chamber will be giving separate feedback to each trade union regarding those demands still on the table on Wednesday, 21 August," he said.

The deadline for finalisation of negotiations is this coming Saturday. He said parties agreed to also meet this coming Monday should it be necessary.

"Solidarity believes a negotiated settlement is still possible," said Du Plessis.