Update on strike action at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations
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Johannesburg, 28 November 2018: Sibanye-Stillwater (Tickers JSE: SGL and NYSE: SBGL - https://www.commodity-tv.net/c/search_adv/?v=298294) advises that acts of violence continue to be experienced at its SA gold operations, due to the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU) strike action, which commenced on the evening shift on Wednesday, 21 November 2018. The situation at the Beatrix and Driefontein operations, in particular, remains tense, with striking workers causing damage to Company property and restricting access to the Company’s operating mine sites.
These violent actions are in direct contravention of the interdict granted by the Labour Court to Sibanye-Stillwater on Thursday, 22 November 2018 and as a result are in contempt of court.
Sibanye-Stillwater respects the right of AMCU members to strike, and upholds the right of employees who wish to work to do so. By their unlawful actions, striking employees are preventing other employees from exercising their right to work, thereby inflicting financial hardship on employees who do not wish to strike.
In order to ensure that the rights of all workers are respected and to avoid further violence, management continues to engage with union leadership with a view to signing a “Peace Pact”.
Sibanye-Stillwater management regards the safety and wellbeing of all its employees as its top priority, and will take appropriate measures to ensure that the interdict granted by the Labour Court is honoured while pursuing its efforts to secure a Peace Pact among all stakeholders.
Background information:
On Wednesday, 14 November 2018, a three-year wage agreement was signed between Sibanye-Stillwater and the other representative unions; the National Union of Mineworkers (the NUM), Solidarity and UASA. Despite numerous attempts by Sibanye-Stillwater to reach a fair and reasonable outcome with AMCU representatives since the negotiations began in June, but despite having participated in the construct of the final offer, AMCU declined to accept the offer.
The average basic wages for category 4-8 employees have increased by more than 65% since Sibanye-Stillwater was unbundled from Gold Fields in 2013. This is significantly above inflation and represents a very real improvement in the standard of living of our employees. The current wage agreement reached with NUM, Solidarity and UASA is again well in excess of inflation, but takes the longer term sustainability of the gold operations into consideration.
Contact:
James Wellsted
SVP Investor Relations
Sibanye-Stillwater
+27 (0) 83 453 4014
[email protected]
In Europe:
Swiss Resource Capital AG
Jochen Staiger
[email protected]
www.resource-capital.ch
This press release is for information purposes only and does not constitute or form part of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to any securities of Sibanye-Stillwater. For the full set of results, please refer to www.sibanyestillwater.com/investors/financial-reporting/operating-financial-updates/2018. This press release should not be sent, distributed, transmitted or otherwise made available in or into the United States or any other jurisdiction where it would be impermissible to do so. The securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933 (the "Securities Act") or with any securities regulatory authority of any state or other jurisdiction of the United States and may not be offered, sold, resold, transferred or delivered, directly or indirectly, in the United States except pursuant to registration under, or an exemption from the registration requirements of, the Securities Act. There will be no public offering of securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction.
The securities have not been approved or disapproved by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and state securities commission in the United States or any other US regulatory authority. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States.
FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS
This announcement contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbour” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as “target”, “will”, “would”, “expect”, “can”, “potential”, “could” and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. These forward-looking statements, including among others, those relating to our future business prospects, financial positions, debt position and our ability to reduce debt leverage, plans and objectives of management for future operations, plans to raise capital through streaming arrangements or pipeline financing, our ability to service our Bond Instruments (High Yield Bonds and Convertible Bonds), our ability to achieve steady state production at the Blitz project and the anticipated benefits and synergies of our acquisitions are necessarily estimates reflecting the best judgement of our senior management and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are difficult to predict and generally beyond the control of Sibanye-Stillwater, that could cause Sibanye-Stillwater’s actual results and outcomes to be materially different from historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. As a consequence, these forward-looking statements should be considered in light of various important factors, including those set forth in the Group’s Annual Integrated Report and Annual Financial Report, published on 30 March 2018, and the Group’s Annual Report on Form 20-F filed by Sibanye-Stillwater with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 2 April 2018 (SEC File no. 001-35785). These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Sibanye-Stillwater undertakes no obligation to update publicly or release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this announcement or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, save as required by applicable law.