Two South African trade unions have signed a three-year wage agreement with miner Sibanye Stillwater on Saturday, one of the unions said on Sunday, removing the last hurdle to restarting operations at its gold mines in the country.
The unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) had agreed on a wage deal with the company on June 3 after almost three months of strike action. However, they did not sign an agreement as some finer aspects of the deal were still being negotiated.
Wage deal between unions and Sibanye:
Sibanye, which also mines platinum group metals in South Africa and the United States of America had said on Friday that certain terms in the draft agreement had not been agreed by the parties and as a result they were not allowed to return to work.
Sibanye had locked out its employees from its gold operations since the beginning of the strike in early March.
“The wage agreement, signed late in the early hours of Saturday morning, ends a three month strike first called by the NUM and AMCU on March 8,” said NUM in a statement.
Sibanye did not immediately respond to an email seeking comments.
