Petra Diamonds reaches wage agreement with South Africa’s NUM
(Reuters) – Petra Diamonds Ltd said on Thursday it had reached an agreement with South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on pay at the company’s Finsch and Koffiefontein operations, ending a strike at the two mines.
Employees would return to normal duties on Sept. 29, the company said in a statement. Petra added that no agreement had been reached at a third mine, the Kimberley Ekapa Mining joint Venture.
Shares in Petra Diamonds ended up nearly 13 percent in London following the agreement and Wednesday’s news that it had been given the go-ahead by the Tanzanian government to resume diamond exports from the Williamson mine.
The NUM said last week that its members would go on indefinite strike at the Koffiefontein mine from Sept. 24 in support of pay demands.
Earlier, more than 600 workers had gone on strike at the company’s Finsch and Kimberley Ekapa Mining joint venture operations over pay.
The three-year wage agreement provides for an annual rise to NUM members of around 9 to 10 percent in the first year, and 8.5 percent for the remaining two years.
The NUM’s demands at Koffiefontein had included a 10 percent wage rise and a monthly housing subsidiary of 1,500 rand for three years.
Petra said that it did not expect the disruption to affect its full-year cost or production guidance.
(Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Adrian Croft)
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