RAPAPORT... Diamond miner, De Beers, averted a strike late Tuesday (July 31, 2007) by agreeing to a double digit pay rise for its South African workers.
Negotiations had come to a halt when De Beers would not move beyond its 8 percent increase. The national Union of Mineworkers (NUM,) seeking an 11 percent pay rise, announced last week that its 3,500 De Beers employed members would strike by Tuesday if their demands were not met.
NUM called off the strike at the last minute after De Beers agreed to a 10 percent rise for its 970 “A-band” workers, 9.5 percent for 2,744 B-band employees, and 8.5 percent rise for 150 C-band workers. The wage increases will be effective for 2008 only.
“This is a very good offer, it is an offer we have been looking for at De Beers,” said Peter Bailey, the NUM negotiator at De Beers. “We put a demand of 10 percent and we got it, so there is nothing to complain about.”
De Beers Consolidated Mines managing director, David Noko, stressed that all parties had benefited from the outcome in that no disruptions had taken place.
“This settlement bodes well for the future, a future where we are both building and bringing into production new mines, and increasing efficiency on the six established [South African] operations,” Noko said. “The settlement this evening enables all in De Beers to now focus on the targets we have in each operation.”
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