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11 August, 2009
A dispute over pay differentials that separate mineworkers of Ghana and expatriate staff employed by AngloGold Ashanti mushroomed last week into a short strike when 5,000 union miners at the gold mines Obuasi, Tarkwa, and Idruapem downed tools.
The strike began on 5 August and was halted two days later upon intervention by the country’s National Labour Commission. Tripartite talks are underway in hopes that a compromise can be reached. The Ghana Mine Workers’ Union (GMWU) warned that a further walkout would come in the next two weeks if differences are not resolved.
AngloGold’s Vice President for Ghana, Keith Faulkner, in a published report last week, admitted the disparities have caused “angst and grief … it is disparate, there is a gap and everyone in the industry knows that.”
The union claims, in some cases, expatriate workers are paid 30 times the rate of a Ghanaian for performing the same job. Another point of contention is AngloGold’s decision to stop using the US dollar as the basis for salaries. The mining house had been quoting salaries in dollars and then converting that amount to cedis (GHC).
AngloGold seeks now to pay salaries in cedis from the outset, a policy miners oppose.
AngloGold has reaped huge profits in second quarter 2009, mostly on continued high gold pricing and the productivity of Ghana’s Birimian field, which holds the rich deposits of Obuasi and Tarkwa.