Trade union Solidarity said it will take legal action against Gold One Mine in Springs following the hostage drama earlier this month during which hundreds of miners were held underground for several days.
Solidarity said it will hold the management of the Gold One mine accountable for the hostage drama that lasted approximately five days at this mine.
Following legal consultation, court documents were prepared with which Solidarity will address the mine’s lack of action to prevent or defuse the situation, the union said.
“Gold One’s failure to guarantee employee safety is highlighted in the documents. Among other things, this is because vigorous and earlier action was not taken against criminal elements within other unions. In fact, the criminals are still at large,” Advocate Paul Mardon. Deputy General Secretary: Strategy and Sustainability at Solidarity said.
During the so-called sit-in strike that began on December 7 and only ended on December 11, employees were held hostage without food and some were even assaulted, he said.
“This incident is regarded in a very serious light, and the guilty parties must be brought to justice. Solidarity demands serious action against all parties responsible for this despicable action. Along with the proposed legal action against Gold One, we also call on all employers to comply with legislation on safety and health in the workplace, otherwise they will have to bear the consequences.”
Mardon added that if a situation such as this one at Gold One is repeated, the union will take penal and other steps against the perpetrators, but certainly also against employers who neglect their duty.
According to him, Solidarity demands that in future the mine management and the police should give priority to these situations.
“Employees who are guilty of this should be summarily dismissed as well as criminally prosecuted. It is unacceptable that apparent labour disputes and trade union rivalry and politics result in such blatant illegal and criminal actions.”
He said this endangers the health and lives of innocent workers.
Mardon further emphasised that such events also seriously threaten the sustainability of the struggling mining industry, as well as the lives of miners in South Africa.
“Solidarity therefore appeals to all its members employed in the mining sector to contact their organisers immediately if the working environment appears to be unsafe. The situation must then be evaluated.”
“If this is indeed the case, we will recommend them to withdraw their labour in terms of section 23 of the Mine Health and Safety Act, until their safety can be guaranteed,” Mardon added.
Solidarity also appealed to the Minerals Council of South Africa as well as the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, and the Department of Employment and Labour, to actively intervene and to take steps to guarantee workers’ safety.
Solidarity said it views the latest hostage drama at the Gold One Mine in Springs in a very serious light, condemning it as yet another case of appalling and cowardly behaviour.
Around 440 miners were trapped underground.
This incident follows in the wake of the incident in which around 562 miners were held hostage at the very same Gold One Mine from October 22 to October 25, following a labour law dispute between the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) and Gold One’s management about recognition rights.
Since then, the Gold One Mine has subjected 52 of the miners who had participated in this unlawful action to disciplinary hearings and has dismissed them.
In the latest incident the hostages are believed to have been the victims of a group of miners who held an unlawful sit-down strike to object to the dismissal of those very 52 workers. They demanded that those workers be re-instated.
Pretoria News
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