JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Trade union Solidarity on Wednesday reached an agreement with the business rescue practitioner regarding retrenchment packages to be paid out to those mineworkers at Vantage Gold Fields’ Lily mine, near Barberton, who had applied for them.
According to Solidarity general secretary Gideon du Plessis, the agreement stated that workers would receive salary payments until the end of May and that their salaries for the months of April and May would be paid out by no later than June 30.
The mine had been closed following a crown pillar collapse in February, with three workers still trapped in a container.
Workers who were trapped underground at the time of the mining accident but later rescued would receive a goodwill payment of R50 000 by July 30.
Du Plessis stated that R32-million was needed to pay the workers’ unpaid remuneration from February to May.
“Although this agreement may bring short-term relief for the workers applying for it, the poverty into which the workers have already been plunged could worsen if urgent funding cannot be found to pay the packages and all the unpaid salaries of the workers,” he warned.
He explained that initial funding of R200-million was needed to get the mine back into production by June 2017.
“Workers will receive 100% of all the unpaid money and concurrent creditors will receive 30c of every rand paid. Payment should take place by the end of May 2017,” he concluded.