Mines workers salary negotiations stall

Published: 03 March 2014

THE Associated Mine Workers' Union of Zimbabwe (AMWUZ) and the Chamber of Mines have reached a deadlock in the 2014 wage negotiations after the chamber refused to award a Poverty Datum Line- linked increment. Last month, government and civil service unions during this year's salary negotiations set the Poverty Datum Line (PDL) at $505.

Workers in the mining industry are presently earning a minimum of $227 a month.

AMWUZ president Tinago Ruzive said the employers represented by the Chamber of Mines were prepared to award a 3,5 percent increment saying they want to give an inflation-linked increment.

Statistics released by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) show that inflation was at 0,41 percent in January.

"Things are not pretty. The Chamber of Mines has remained adamant saying they cannot increase the minimum from $227 and link with the PDL because the employers are already offering perks such as accommodation, water and electricity that if grossed up the lowest paid worker in the sector earns a salary linked with the PDL," he said.

"We have also tried to negotiate with them to increase the minimum to $300 but again they have refused. We have already started contacting the workers from all the branches countrywide informing them about this development; as a union, we are guided by what the workers will tell us to do.

"If they say, accept the 3,5 percent or reject it we will do so accordingly because who are we to go against what the workers want."

Ruzive said he foresees an explosive situation erupting in the mining industry following the deadlock.

He added that the employers in the mining sector were arguing that the industry was not performing well because of the economic challenges in the country.

The Chamber of Mines president Alex Mhembere could not be reached for comment as his phone was not being answered.

The 2014 salary negotiations between AMWUZ and the Chamber of Mines begun in November last year before the negotiating parties engaged the National Employment Council for the mining industry to carry out a survey pertaining to the arguments that were put forward by the employers.
- chronicle