Striking workers have returned to the deep shafts of the Ranfontein gold mine in South Africa after a dispute over an accommodation allowance was resolved by representatives of Harmony Gold Mining and the National Union of Mineworkers.
The parties agreed to establish a joint partnership aimed at designing a long-term solution to the problem of an accommodation allowance.
In Africa, many workers live on-site in hostels or in small homes, sometimes at their own expense.
The parties agreed in principle to increase living allowances to R500 per month. The increases would parallel annual wage increases, with the goal of reaching R600 by January 2005.
According to Harmony’s chief executive officer, Bernard Swanepoel, the company “wanted an agreement focusing on a total sustainable long-term solution for our employees’ accommodation needs [as opposed to] throwing money at about 20 per cent of the labour force, who are neither homeowners nor hostel-dwellers. Limiting the percentage increase to annual wage increases over the next two and a half years allows the mine to plan for these costs accordingly.”
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