Gold One Mine says it followed the right procedures after dismissing 300 workers

Gold One Mine

Cape Town — The Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) is reportedly taking the Gold One Mine to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) following the dismissal of more than 300 workers.

Many of the workers were disgruntled that they were issued their letters of dismissal for participating in wildcat strikes, demanding that Gold One Mine recognises ACMU as their representatife union, instead of their rivals, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), eNCA reported. 

In response, Gold One Mine said they followed the proper legal processes before dismissing the workers, Head of legal, Ziyaad Hassam, said.

“I’m confident in the process that was conducted as far as the disciplinary proceedings were concerned. Each one of the employees who were dismissed, we believe warranted the sanction of dismissal. We are in receipt of a referral to the CCMA, by AMCU, on behalf of those 303 employees, and we are happy to go along with CCMA-facilitated process,” Hassam said.

He added that where they might have gotten it wrong with individual employees, they would be happy to reinstate them but they feel confident of the process and were satisfied with their dismissal.

According to EWN, Hassam said the gold operation was running on skeleton staff as some miners faced threats of violence from dismissed workers. Claims of intimidation at the mine have rocked the company as they deal with two separate processes are yet to unfold at the CCMA, including one to verify AMCU as a union at the mine and another to review about 300 of the dismissals.

Hassam said he was worried about the far-reaching implications of the labour unrest. The mine has since called for calm.

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Compiled by Matthew Petersen

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