Labour union AMCU has confirmed that operations will remain suspended at the Sibanye Beatrix Gold mine at Theunissen, in the northern Free State.
More than one thousand mine workers were trapped underground on Wednesday following a power outage caused by a severe storm. 955 mine workers were stuck underground for almost two days and were brought to the surface on Friday morning.
AMCU’s regional chair Xolani Bokoloshe says the union met with the mine management and a collective decision was taken about workers not reporting for work.
“The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the issue of people to report on duty today at night shift, even early in the morning tomorrow. In our discussion we agree with the employer that people are not going to report on duty, the night shift today the morning shift also is not going to report on duty tomorrow morning. All the employees will report at the at the training centre, and we agreed that tomorrow the DMR will come and test the generators after the DMR made a decision we will be binded by the decision of the DMR.”
