South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore, union reach wage deal

South Africa’s Kumba Iron Ore, a unit of Anglo American, and a major union have signed a three-year wage deal giving workers an increase of as much as a 10 per cent a year, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said Friday.

NUM, which is the majority union at all of Kumba’s operations, said workers would get an annual pay rise ranging between 7 to 10 per cent.

The parties also agreed on a once off payment of 25,065 rand ($1,905) for all employees covered by the agreement.

NUM had in May tabled wage hike demands of 12.5 to 16 per cent with Kumba.

The pay deal is good news for the troubled mining sector in South Africa. Investors have been rattled in recent months by labour unrest, policy uncertainty, and depressed commodity prices.

Coal producers and unions agreed in June to retain a collective bargaining framework for wage talks in 2017, defusing friction after NUM threatened to go on strike if mining firms negotiated on a company-by-company basis.