NUM, AMCU reject Sibanye’s 'final' wage offer

The strike by members of the Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) entered its seventh week on Wednesday.

The unions want an increase of R1 000 for surface and underground miners and 6% for artisans, miners and officials.

The company's James Wellsted says they offered a R850 increase, but unions rejected the offer.

He says the company has already lost billions due to the protracted strike.

“We have been through a period where NUM and AMCU members have been on strike. It is just over a month now and unfortunately our employees are suffering quite severe financial hardship.

"They have now lost about over a billion rand in wages, which is effectively two years of any benefit they would’ve received from the increased offer that we have made and the higher demand of a thousand rand that the unions have been demanding,” says Wellsted.

Wellsted says the R850 was the company’s final offer.

“So in an attempt to find an agreement, we thought that we can increase it slightly in order to get some movement from the unions, so we increased the offer. But again the unions have been very rigid in their demands and they have rejected the offer so far. At this point we cannot increase our offer anymore, it is already above inflation and we need to consider the sustainability of our operations as well as the impact on other stakeholders who rely on our operation. At this point the ball is in the unions’ court."

Meanwhile, CEO Neal Froneman’s R300 million annual salary has been a subject of fierce debate on social media as the unions continue with the industrial action.

The salary was revealed in the company's annual report.

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