Layoffs of Contract Workers Challenged by NUM

South African affiliate National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has challenged Harmony Gold Mining’s sacking of 300 contract workers without consulting the union. Harmony fired contractor DBE Mining at the Kalgold mine in the Northern Cape, and will bring in a new contractor employing other workers.

NUM, which has filed a complaint over the matter in a South African labour court, is demanding that Harmony, “in the current climate of a boom in gold prices,” hire the 300 on a permanent basis.

In a statement, NUM said, “Harmony would like to hide behind the myth that the 300 workers are employees of a contractor while in reality they do critical work in a Harmony mine … subcontracting and outsourcing are new forms of exploitation through which big companies try to exonerate themselves from the stain of careless laying off of employees.”