Harmony Gold, unions sign wage agreement
Harmony Gold and labour unions, including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), have signed a three-year wage agreement.
The agreement will see workers’ wages increase by an average of 6% per annum.
It makes provision for a 6% salary increase per year for the next three years for miners, artisans and officials. Category 4 to 8 employees will receive an increase of 8.4% per year over the next three years.
Additional benefits include a housing and medical allowance.
Numsa general-secretary Irvin Jim has described the agreement as ground-breaking.
“We are pacesetters in this agreement. We are telling employers in the commodity sector that are currently experiencing a boom period, that we are not going to allow workers to continue to be exploited and it is time that workers receive a living wage.
“Employers cannot continue to hide behind Covid-19 as the reason to deny workers a living wage.”
The agreement will be backdated to 1 July and is applicable immediately.
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