Mineworkers (NUM) has called for the removal of “divisive” Northam Platinum CEO Paul Dunne with immediate effect, alleging that he had attempted to weaken and reverse progressive policies currently regulating the company’s employee relations. The union said in a statement on Wednesday that workers had been subjected to unfair dismissals despite being on valid sick leave and that management had refused to meet with the NUM’s branch leadership at the Zondereinde mine, in Limpopo, to discuss their concerns. NUM further called for the removal of human resources (HR) head Collin Smith, HR manager Ncedisa Maqoma, HR operations manager Marco van der Linde and GM Danny Gonsalves. “The workers hereby stand with one voice that [these] employees of Northam Platinum must also be removed, as there are clear indications [that they wish] to divide [the workforce]. “Despite numerous attempts by the branch leadership to resolve issues with management…[they] responded by threatening disciplinary action without dealing with the actual issues,” NUM spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu asserted. About 5 200 NUM members embarked on an unprotected strike at the Zondereinde mine on Tuesday evening and Northam said it had made an urgent application to the Labour Court for the action to be declared unprotected and to force employees to return to work. “Zondereinde’s smelter operations are unaffected,” the miner noted.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 11:41:34 +0000