{"id":760646,"date":"2018-06-11T19:47:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T19:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=760646"},"modified":"2018-06-11T19:47:05","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T19:47:05","slug":"south-africa-union-seeks-12500-rand-minimum-for-gold-miners-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=760646","title":{"rendered":"South Africa union seeks 12,500 rand minimum for gold miners"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Bloomberg News<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

(Bloomberg) \u2014 <\/span>South Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union plans to demand a 12,500 rand ($950) monthly minimum wage from some of the country’s top gold producers in upcoming negotiations.<\/div>\n
\n

The labor group decided on its demands on Sunday at a mass meeting near Carletonville, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west of Johannesburg. It is the second-largest union at producers including AngloGold Ashanti Ltd., Sibanye Gold Ltd. and Harmony Gold Mining Co. Ltd., according to Minerals Council South Africa, a lobby representing the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201c12,500 rand, I think it can put the worker in a better place,\u201d especially considering higher taxes and petrol prices, AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa said in an interview after the meeting. What workers are currently paid \u201cisn’t fair.\u201d<\/p>\n

The labor group is also calling for an increase in benefits ranging from severance pay to transport costs and longer maternity leave. It also wants a five-day work week to replace the shift system. Mathunjwa cautioned that the union can change its demands at any time.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s gold mines are among the world’s deepest, oldest and most labor intensive, which means that producers face constant pressure to reduce costs, while a 27 percent national unemployment rate makes job cuts politically difficult.<\/p>\n

Negotiations imminent<\/h3>\n

The Minerals Council has received AMCU’s demands, spokeswoman Charmane Russell said in an emailed response.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo date has yet been set for the start of negotiations, but that is imminent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The union demand would mean a substantial increase to companies including Harmony, which reached an agreement in 2015 that increased the monthly minimum basic pay to 7,662 rand ($586) in July last year.<\/p>\n

The biggest union at the companies, the National Union of Mineworkers, in April submitted a list of demands for a two-year agreement that calls for entry-level underground pay of 10,500 rand a month, according to a copy seen by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n

(By Paul Burkhardt, Ntando Thukwana and Odwa Mjo)<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post South Africa union seeks 12,500 rand minimum for gold miners<\/a> appeared first on MINING.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

…read more<\/a> <\/p>\n

From:: Mining.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Bloomberg News (Bloomberg) \u2014 South Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union plans to demand a 12,500 rand ($950) monthly minimum wage from some of the country’s top gold producers in upcoming negotiations. The labor group decided on its demands on Sunday at a mass meeting near Carletonville, about 90 kilometers (56 miles) west […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760646"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=760646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/760646\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=760646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=760646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=760646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}