9.5 Percent wage increase at Lonmin

JOHANNESBURG - Workers at Lonmin, the world’s third largest platinum company, will receive a 9.5 percent increase in their salaries, trade union Solidarity said on Wednesday.

The wage agreement reached this week will be backdated to October, spokesman Jaco Kleynhans said in a statement.

“Solidarity is very satisfied that negotiations here could be concluded without declaring any disputes.”

The agreement determined that in future there would be only one bonus system at Lonmin, instead of existing separate systems for various bargaining units.

The one-year agreement was concluded for miners and artisans.

“The implementation of a single system will eventually ensure that there is no unfairness in the application of the bonus system. The new system must already be finalised in the first half of 2010.”

The overall wage agreement was on Wednesday confirmed by Lonmin’s chief operations officer Mohamed Seedat.

- Sapa