BMWU cagey about accepting BCL offer

CALISTUS KOLANTSHO
Correspondent | Thursday June 13, 2013 00:00

Contacted on Tuesday, Malele said he did not want to say much because the union had not signed anything yet.He added that an announcement would be made after a meeting between BMWU and BCL management that was scheduled for yesterday morning.Nevertheless, information reaching Mmegi is that BMWU has decided to accept the offer put forward by BCL after it informed the union that failure to meet production targets had resulted in an operating loss of P83.3 million for the 2012 financial year.

The decision was allegedly taken at a meeting attended by 900 union members at Selebi-Phikwe Town Hall on Monday evening.The issue was not even put to a vote because those present overwhelmingly called for acceptance of the BCL offer and signing an agreement to that effect. The company offered a differentiated increase of five percent across the board on basic salary for job grades P1 to P3 and four percent across the board for job grades 01 to AO3.The alleged acceptance of these offers comes after BMWU members' threatened to go on a legal strike following the collapse of negotiations.

Among factors considered in favour of accepting the offer is that some mine shafts are operating at a loss but the mine is keeping them operational so as to avoid rentrechments.The union had wanted an across the board salary increase of 10 percent, an adjustment of underground allowances from P99 to P149 per month, an adjustment of machine men's allowances from P30 per shift to P45 per shift and an adjustment of housing allowances by P250 across board. Further, the union wanted an adjustment of tapping allowances from P6 per shift to P14 per shift, an adjustment of annual bonuses from five percent to eight percent of annual basic pay and an adjustment of hot metal allowances from P69 to P100 per month.

The union has reportedly requested to defer the adjustment of artisan tool allowance from P30 per month to P230 per month to another forum.  Efforts to get a comment from BCL management were not successful as the company's public relations and marketing manager James Molosankwe's phone rang unanswered.