Sibanye Gold could retrench up to 330 people from its newly acquired platinum operations to cut costs and merge its Kroondal and Rustenburg mines.
Sibanye has issued a Section 189 notice under the Labour Relations Act‚ notifying the workforce of the retrenchments and to give organised labour a chance to present ideas over the next 60 days on how the job cuts could be avoided or minimised.
“This process could result in the retrenchment of approximately 330 employees‚ which remains well within the scope of the Competition Tribunal’s ruling when it approved the acquisitions of Aquarius Platinum Limited and the Rustenburg Operations in March 2016‚” Sibanye said on Thursday.
Sibanye said it had told the market last year that it had to save R800-million in costs at the neighbouring mines it bought‚ realising there were benefits to unlocking savings by bringing them into a single entity.
“The reduction in replicated overhead costs and duplicate structures is a critical first step in realising these synergies‚” it said.
AngloGold Ashanti‚ which wanted to lay off 849 employees‚ held talks with the National Union of Mineworkers‚ and came to an agreement to retrain these employees and redeploy them elsewhere in the company‚ or train them for other jobs‚ according to the union.
– TMG Digital/BusinessLIVE
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 