Neal Froneman, CEO of Sibanye-Stillwater, said in a statement, “We are pleased to have concluded this five-year inflation-linked wage agreement, which follows the agreements we reached at our Rustenburg and Marikana operations in 2022 in a constructive manner and without any disruption.”
For the five-year deal, miners, artisans, and officials will earn increases of six per cent annually. According to the association, the average annual increase in the overall salary cost, which includes all perks, over the next five years is expected to be 6.4%.
The National Union of Mineworkers (the NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) signed the agreement. In October, the unions engaged in bitter conflict over members at the independently owned East Modder mine located near Springs, east of Johannesburg. However, Sibanye-Stillwater encountered no similar issues when negotiating a new labor agreement.
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Not for De Beers, either, which on November 3 announced that workers at its Venetia Mine and De Beers Sightholder Sales South Africa would get a five-year salary agreement from the NUM. According to the agreement, De Beers workers will get a 7% raise in 2023 and then a 6% raise in each of the following years, up until April 2028.
A challenging year for Sibanye-Stillwater
In the midst of a challenging 2023 for Sibanye-Stillwater, where falling PGM prices and a decline in the performance of its North American PGM operations have placed significant financial pressure on the company, the wage agreement at the Kroondal PGM mine is a bit of good news.
Sibanye-Stillwater announced a drop in adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter, coming in at R2.53 billion as opposed to R8.3 billion for the corresponding period of the prior fiscal year.
On October 25, the company declared that it was reorganizing two shafts and closing two others, which would have an impact on 4,095 workers. Nearly 3,000 jobs are in jeopardy at the Kloof 4 shaft, where restructuring was already announced.
