What would have been South Africa’s largest strike since 1987 was averted when more than 100,000 mineworkers at the country’s three biggest gold mines accepted a 2-year agreement involving a 10% wage hike in each year (about 2.3% above the annual rate of inflation).
The National Union of Mineworkers was demanding a 20% wage increase per year, and mining companies had countered with an initial offer of about 8%.
Underground miners will now earn a basic wage of roughly R2,200 (US$286) per month, or R200 (US$26) more than was agreed to in the previous round of wage negotiations, in 2001.
AngloGold, Gold Fields and Harmony have agreeed to pay surface workers a minimum of R2,000 per month beginning in January 2004. Surface workers in South Africa receive an average of 27.3% less money than those who work underground.
The companies have also agreed to review the salary scales of all workers over the next four months, and make wages retroactive to July.
The Chamber of Mines estimates that mining companies would have lost about R125 million (US$16.25 million) per day if the workers had gone on strike, whereas mine workers would have lost about R50 million (US$6.5 million) per day in wages.
Gold companies that are members of the chamber employed about 175,000 people at their operations in 2001.
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