NUM to consider new coal sector offer

Coal producers on Friday revised their wage offer for employees, which the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) will now take to its members, the Chamber of Mines said on Friday.

Coal producers Anglo American Coal, Delmas, Exxaro, Kangra, Koornfontein, Msobo, and Glencore are represented by the chamber in centralised collective bargaining and held further discussions with the NUM on Friday.

“After making a number of further concessions, the producers tabled a revised offer today [Friday],” the chamber said in a statement.

The offer was for two years effective July 1. In terms of the revised offer, most category 4-8 employees would receive increases, staggered over a period of time, of between R750 and R1000 per month in year one and guaranteed increases of 7.5 percent in year two.

Most employees in the higher categories would receive increases of between five and 7.5 percent in both years.

Increases to the living out allowance and housing allowance would vary from company to company.

“The coal producers are facing subdued demand and price pressures. The offers we have made are at the limit of what is affordable. Further strike action will continue to undermine the sustainability of the industry and jobs,” Chamber of Mines head of employment relations Motsamai Motlhamme said.

Both the United Association of SA and Solidarity had indicated their members’ acceptance of the offer tabled on September 14.

The NUM, representing 72 percent of 17,000 employees in the industry, would take the revised offer to employees, and the parties would reconvene on Monday, the chamber said.

Coal miners have been on strike since Sunday after earlier wage negotiations collapsed.