South Africa unions, coal sector agree to collective wage talks

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa's Chamber of Mines said on Thursday that coal producers and unions had agreed to retain a collective bargaining framework for wage talks in 2017, defusing a potential source of friction.

"The parties agreed that the 2017 wage negotiations will take place centrally under the auspices of the Chamber of Mines," the chamber said in a statement. The producers involved are Anglo Coal, Delmas Coal, Exxaro Coal Mpumalanga , Kangra Coal, Koornfontein Mines and Glencore.

South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had threatened to go on strike if the companies had pushed ahead with a plan to negotiate wages on a company-by-company basis, instead of collectively as an industry.