800 retrenchments expected at Amplats mine

CDS is a subsidiary of Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) at the mine. The retrenched contractors now face possible unemployment without financial aid, retirement and proper pension funds, Steelberger News reported.

“Anglo American Platinum made a decision to delay all expansionary projects. As a result the Twickenham Project is being demobilised until 2017, in order to better structure the operation to be fit for purpose with a reduced capital footprint,” Amplats spokesperson Mpumi Sithole said.

The retrenchments are expected to be finalised on 6 October .

Sithole said conventional mining would continue at the Hackney Shaft while the Twickenham Shaft undergoes “care maintenance”. This will retain 1 300 jobs, she said.

CDS contractors are mainly managed by Rustenburg-based SAN Contracting Services which supplies labour on various sites to major mining houses including Amplats.

“When our contract agreements end on the mines, there is nothing we can implement to change that. The mines are in control regarding the mining contracts they issue, including the termination dates,” SAN spokesperson Frans Burger said.

“Meetings are taking place with the mining unions … we will assist them (contractors) with transfers to other mining companies, but if there are no positions available, then there is nothing we can do,” Burger added.

According to the letter received by the contractors, no final decisions had yet been made regarding the implementation of the retrenchments, but the contractors affected stated that they knew the decision was already final.

SAN intended to offer them severance pay as agreed with the National Union of Mineworkers, stipulating two weeks’ severance pay for every completed, uninterrupted year of service, one ex-gratia payment of R5 000 per employee and notice as per the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, Burger said.

– Caxton News Service