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NUM Press Alert, 29 April 2015 AMCU and Anglo Platinum are colluding to retrench 474 workers The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is extremely disturbed and worried to realise that AMCU is in alliance or is sleeping in the same bed with Anglo Platinum to destroy 474 jobs of the mineworkers at Khomanani Mine in Rustenburg. The workers have to leave with immediate effect and tomorrow is their last day. It is very unusual and under normal circumstances where the company anticipates retrenchments, it has to follow the due course of the law where they have to issue section 189 of the Labour Relations Act. They must also follow section 52 of the MPRDA act in an event they anticipate retrenchments exceeding 10% of the total workforce likely to be affected. Background In 2012, the NUM which was leading the negotiations when Anglo Platinum wanted to retrench 14 000 workers and those negotiations unfolded under the auspices of the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR). Retrenchments were reduced to 3000 and forced retrenchments to 1 500. As a result of the wildcat strike by AMCU in 2013, AMCU was forced to make concessions and compromises when they had to get their members back to work after a five months wild cat strike. At that time, some of the AMCU members were likely to be dismissed for participating in an unprotected strike. That is when AMCU and Anglo Platinum signed another agreement that is now leading to these retrenchments today. The agreement has a clause in it that talks about a reclamation project. In this reclamation project, AMCU agreed with Anglo Platinum that at the end of the project, they will retrench all the 474 employees and then they will revert back to Voluntary Separate Packages (VSP's) and the workers will be automatically retrenched. This is what is happening now. AMCU and its leadership did not reveal this part to the workers and the country when they signed the agreement. "As we speak now 474 workers have been informed by the company that they will be retrenched with immediate effect tomorrow (30 April 2015). There are no legal processes that have been followed by the company. Workers are very angry and embarrassed. Workers are flocking to the offices of the NUM expressing disappointment caused by AMCU and the company saying they have been misled by this union for so long," said Tshimane Montoedi, NUM Deputy General Secretary. "These massive retrenchments are triggered by the agreement that was signed between AMCU and Anglo Platinum to sell out workers," Montoedi added. The NUM is currently exploring options and avenues of making sure that it assists its members and non-members by taking the legal route and other routes that can assist these vulnerable workers. For more information, please contact: Tshimane Montoedi, NUM Deputy General Secretary, 082 808 9373 Mxhasi Sithethi, NUM Rustenburg Regional Coordinator, 082 903 3489: Livhuwani Mammburu, Acting NUM National Spokesperson, 083 809 3257 Address: 7 Rissik Street. Cnr Frederick, Johannesburg 2001 Tel: 011 377 2111 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
