Sibanye set to meet with Mantashe over wage impasse
Top management at Sibanye-Stillwater is set to meet with government in the midst of a wage impasse between the mining conglomerate and its employees.
It’s understood the closed-door meeting will take place sometime on Monday.
Last week, striking unions rejected the company’s final wage offer.
The unions want an increase of over R1 000 for surface and underground miners and 6% for artisans, miners and officials but the company refused to back down from it R850 offer.
Talks have been deadlocked for seven weeks with operations at a standstill.
Sibanye-Stillwater spokesperson James Wellsted confirmed the pending meeting with Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe.
Wellsted says the company hopes government can offer some intervention.
“I’m not sure exactly what interventions or what proposals will come from that meeting but as I’ve said we haven’t made the decision lightly in terms of the offer - we do need to consider the impact on all stakeholders.
“These above-inflation increases that we’re continually having to absorb from Eskom and other areas are not sustainable and we need to consider whether is more employment than salaries in the short-term.”
It’s unclear how much profits the company has lost since halting operations.
“I can’t give that number but we have got results coming out on Thursday.
“The concern is more the impact on employees and other stakeholders but the financial impact is not as severe,” Wellsted adds.
Meanwhile, workers believed to be from Sibanye’s gold operation disrupted a Workers’ Day rally at the Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg on Sunday.
ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa was heckled and forced to abandon his speech as the crowd expressed frustration over failed wage talks.
