With the closed-shop agreement between Gold One Modder East mine and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) effectively coming to an end on Thursday, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) has the opportunity to register as a trade union at the mine.
This is according to Gold One mine head of legal Ziyaad Hassam, saying Amcu can now apply for record as a trade union at the mine.
“Amcu must send a written notice to the company [Gold One] informing the company that it seeks to exercise organisational rights,” said Hassam.
“The notice must be accompanied by a certified copy of Amcu’s certificate of registration and must specify: the workplace in respect of which Amcu seeks to exercise the organisational rights; Amcu’s representativeness in that workplace and the facts relied upon to demonstrate that it is a representative trade union; and the rights that Amcu seeks to exercise and the manner in which it seeks to exercise those rights.”
Previously, Hassam said NUM bore the responsibility of conducting the ballot to determine which union the employees want to join between NUM and Amcu.
This follows the Labour Court judgment on November 17 that the ballot should be held within 15 business days. Hassam said the ballot should be held before or by December 8.
However, NUM regional organiser Victor Ngwane said the organisation will not conduct any ballot because they are appealing the Labour Court judgment, and they will cease to be a recognised workers’ union at the mine as from December 14.
“We terminated our closed-shop agreement with the mine. We will not be doing any ballot. Since we have lodged an appeal, the court judgment is suspended and nothing is forcing us to do the ballot.
“The closed-shop agreement ends tomorrow [Thursday], so we will no longer be a recognised union at the mine,” said Ngwane.
“Therefore, we cannot do any ballot because we won’t be a union.”
Last month, NUM terminated its closed-shop agreement with Gold One mine in Springs, east of Johannesburg, paving the way for any trade union to submit stop orders that will make it eligible to be the union that represents workers at the mine.
Currently, the agreement allows the NUM to be the only union representing Gold One workers.
Amcu general secretary Jeff Mphahlele said the union will be having a meeting with the mine management on Thursday to kickstart the process of having Amcu recognised as a union at the mine.
“We are having a meeting with them tomorrow to discuss our organisational rights. We want our organisational rights,” said Mphahlele.
“We will hear what they want us to submit. It can be an unpredictable meeting. We will hear what they say.”
Hostage drama underground
Meanwhile, Hassam said the company is yet to determine the number of people that were last week held hostage at Gold One mine where 447 people were underground.
The hostage situation begun on Thursday night and ended on Monday night.
Hassam said it is unclear how many people were being held hostage and how many had planned a sit-in.
Hassam said the hostage situation was motivated by protests against the dismissal of employees following the October hostage situation.
Hassam said criminal charges have been opened with the police and an investigation has been opened by the police.
He said an internal investigation is underway and disciplinary proceedings will follow thereafter.
Hassam said 73 employees have been dismissed by the mine for the October hostage situation.
In October, 15 mineworkers held about 540 other miners hostage underground. The miners were held against their will from the evening of October 22 until October 25.
Gold One said at the time that miners belonging to Amcu were responsible for the hostage.
However, Amcu dismissed the allegations, saying the workers had voluntarily decided to stage a sit-in underground.
Gauteng police spokesperson Brigadier Brenda Muridili said there were no updates in the kidnapping case that police opened against the miners who were behind the hostage.
Provincial police spokesperson Colonel Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi said there is no new update regarding the murder of one of the investigators of the October hostage situation.
The 55-year-old investigator was shot and killed last week while travelling with his wife and two kids. He was shot at by unknown suspects.
He was declared dead on the scene while the wife and kids survived with no injuries. One person on the street sustained an injury after he was hit by a bullet.
The suspects are reported to have fled in a black BMW.
