Johnathan Paoli
Production at Impala Platinum’s (Implats) Bafokeng Platinum Mine in the North West is still suspended as protest action at the facility enters its second day.
Thousands of workers failed to resurface from the north and south shafts on Monday amid a labour dispute, as management classifies their action as a voluntary underground sit-in.
Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said he suspected that the workers were at odds with the company over its profit-sharing incentive.
“Whether this is just a ruse to something bigger or different, we don’t know but we will know as soon as we are to engage with the union,” Theron said.
However, Theron said that 63 of the 2,205 miners who started the protest on Monday had come to the surface during the night.
The company described the sit-in as an illegal underground protest and threatened that it would address those employees who engaged in illegal conduct and criminal acts in a decisive way.
“Hopefully we can respond today through the NUM and agree a process to return all workers to the surface and resolve issues in a normal constructive engagement,” Theron said.
More than 100 gold miners spent nearly three days underground in Springs near Johannesburg in October as rival unions battled for control.
Another 440 staged a protest in another gold mine this month while 250 platinum workers demanding better wages occupied a shaft for three days at the same time.
Previously thirteen workers at its Rustenburg mine plummeted to their death after a lift they were in had a mechanical fault, injuring scores of other workers.
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