The chief executive of bullion producer Harmony Gold said yesterday he could consider a moratorium on job cuts if unions accepted wage increases in line with inflation. The Department of Mineral Resources has held talks with companies and unions over planned job cuts and teams have been formed to find ways of stemming the tide of lay-offs."I guess we could put a moratorium on retrenchments if unions [accept] that they are only going to get cost-of-living increases," Harmony chief executive Graham Briggs said at a presentation of the company's annual results.Asked about the remarks at a media briefing after his presentation, Briggs said: "I could give some attention to that [a moratorium] if labour gave some serious attention to what I said."The National Union of Mineworkers said earlier this month that 11000 of its members could lose their jobs under planned cost cutting by mining companies.Briggs' remarks were made as Harmony and other producers are locked in wage talks with unions. The two biggest unions want pay hikes of from 80% to more than 100% for the lowest-paid miners, against an inflation rate of 4.7%. Briggs said if there was a strike he did not think it would be long, but admitted that a long stoppage "would do a huge amount of damage to the industry and particularly Harmony".On a range of fronts Harmony's situation is worse than those of its South African peers.Its return on equity, according to Thomson Reuters data is negative 8.47%, far below Gold Fields, AngloGold Ashanti and Sibanye Gold.Harmony's headline loss per share for the year to end June was 189c versus earnings of 26c last year. A poll had forecast a wider loss of 223c a share.It managed to post quarterly headline earnings of 44c a share from a loss of 60c a share in the previous quarter, as production and sales climbed and as it benefited from a deferred tax credit...