Dineo Faku
THE ASSOCIATION of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has got its foot in the door at Sibanye Gold’s Beatrix mine, after reaching the 40 percent representation threshold in the operation’s low-level bargaining categories.
A two-month verification process led by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) confirmed that Amcu had 2 623 new members at Beatrix in the Free State out of 6 385 employees in worker categories 4 to 8.
Vusi Sampula, the head of employee relations at Sibanye, said yesterday that Amcu would have access to minimal rights, including stop order deduction facilities, one full-time shop steward, the ability to represent employees at disciplinary hearings and an office at Beatrix, which has a total workforce of 8 528.
For every 1 200 members a union was entitled to receive one full shop steward, Sampula said. “The process of negotiating for a recognition agreement with Amcu will commence shortly. It may take a few weeks or days.”
Sibanye was the first gold mining house to recognise Amcu as the majority union when it signed a recognition agreement at its Driefontein operations in Carletonville last year, where Amcu represents over 60 percent of employees.
Amcu president Joseph Mathunjwa said yesterday: “The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) cannot keep saying they have 61 percent membership in the gold sector… We reached the threshold at Sibanye’s Beatrix mine by taking members from NUM.”
However, the NUM has cried foul at the verification process and has claimed 350 members had been recruited to Amcu without their knowledge and had never signed forms to join the union.
“We encouraged them to open a criminal case against the perpetrators,” NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said yesterday.
Sampula reiterated that Sibanye went through a credible process under the CCMA.
Labour unions enter into individual recognition agreements with gold producers.
Amcu represents around 21 percent of the unionised employees in the gold sector, according to the latest payroll information.
It is the biggest union in the platinum belt, where it led the longest strike in the country’s history between January and June this year.
“The latest numbers on union representation in the gold sector show that the NUM is still the majority union,” Zingaphi Matanzima, the spokeswoman at the Chamber of Mines, said yesterday.
“Nevertheless, the chamber and its gold members regard Amcu as an important stakeholder in gold, and is working hard on building a relationship with Amcu founded upon professionalism, integrity and ultimately trust.”
Amcu represents a third of employees at Harmony Gold’s Masimong mine and just over 70 percent of those at its Kusasalethu mine.
Across AngloGold Ashanti’s operations, Amcu represents about 29 percent compared with the NUM’s 51 percent.