Anglo American Platinum Ltd. to Make Massive Job Cuts

Anglo American Platinum Ltd. is a name that many of you may not be familiar with. For those of you who are not familiar with the company lets begin by taking a look at how the company has chosen to describe itself, “Anglo American Platinum Limited (Amplats) is the world’s leading primary producer of platinum group metals (PGMs) and accounts for approximately 40% of the world’s newly mined platinum. The Company is listed on the JSE Limited and has its headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa. Anglo American Platinum’ wholly owned South African mining operations in the Bushveld Complex include the Bathopele, Dishaba, Khomanani, Khuseleka, Mogalakwena, Siphumelele, Thembelani and Tumela mines. Twickenham Platinum Mine remained under development during 2011.”

The company is getting ready to cut back on about 12,000 workers as a way to quell its issues with the some serious strike issues. The company has put out the following statement about the job cuts related to the strike that are coming in the near future, “Anglo American Platinum Limited (“Anglo American Platinum”) is providing an update on the ongoing illegal industrial action around its Rustenburg mining operations. It has been three weeks since the initial safety suspension and the subsequent industrial action by employees in the Rustenburg area. Despite the company’s repeated calls for employees to return to work, we have continued to experience attendance levels of less than 20%. Currently four of the company’s mining operations in the Rustenburg area have insufficient staff to operate and only essential services are being carried out at those mines… Disciplinary hearings for striking Rustenburg mine employees have been completed and affected employees will be informed of the outcome of the hearings today. Those employees will have three working days to appeal the outcome. Approximately 12,000 striking employees chose not to make representations, nor attend the hearings, and have therefore been dismissed in their absence. Anglo American Platinum also confirms that the company has begun to experience strike contagion at its Union and Amandelbult (Tumela and Dishaba) operations, where workers have presented memorandums of demands similar to those received in Rustenburg.”

This is, of course, not the only mining company to be cutting back on workers in the recent past, and many of them do not have nearly as good of an excuse to cut back on the members of their workforces. For those of you who missed out on our earlier coverage here is a look at the job cuts that were made by Alpha Natural Resources this year, “The company is getting ready to cut back on 1,200 positions through their workforce. While a lot of the details are not clear at this point, in terms of where all of the cuts will come from we do know that about 400 workers are being cut ASAP from facilities that are closing in the states of Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia… The company is describing the changes that they are making in terms of a larger restructuring plan that the company is taking in order to cut back on costs. Here is a look at how the company is terming the job cuts, “Between now and early 2013 operational adjustments will reduce approximately 1,200 positions from the current workforce of 13,100 employees. The first of the planned reductions commence today with the idling of eight mines in Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Approximately 400 positions will be eliminated…”