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(Bloomberg) — South Africa’s Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union agreed to a wage increase with Sibanye Gold Ltd., avoiding a planned strike at the country’s largest producer of bullion.
AMCU members, who make up more than 40 percent of about 46,000 Sibanye employees, voted to accept the offer by a show of hands at Sibanye’s Driefontein operations near Carletonville, west of Johannesburg, on Sunday. The deal includes improved wage increases for three years and will apply to all the company’s workers, AMCU President Joseph Mathunjwa said in an interview.
South Africa’s economy has been hampered by mining strikes, most notably a five-month stoppage at platinum mines in 2014. Sibanye is in the process of finalizing the acquisition of assets from Anglo American Platinum Ltd. and Aquarius Platinum Ltd. as part of an expansion strategy.
Sibanye hasn’t formally heard back from AMCU, spokesman James Wellsted said by phone. An agreement will bring “peace and stability to the industry,” he said.
