JOHANNESBURG — After two weeks of disruption, the employees’ strike at De Beers Consolidated Mines over wage increases has ended.
Employees belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers and the management of De Beers agreed to settle their dispute on Thursday and get the company’s diamond mine operations running again.
According to the terms of the agreement, salaries for entry-level employees will increase 10 percent, while salaries for artisans and more skilled employees will increase 8 percent. The two-year agreement also calls for an increase in 2012 to be determined by the consumer price index plus 2 percent.
Entry-level employees comprise less than 10 percent of the 1,778-person workforce in the bargaining unit represented by the union. The NUM had initially demanded a 15 percent salary increase, while De Beers offered 7 percent.
A spokesman for De Beers said the new scales would be implemented in August and retroactive to May, which was when the previous agreement expired.
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“The leadership of De Beers expects normality to be restored quickly at the mines affected,” said De Beers chief executive officer Philip Barton. “De Beers has not experienced a strike in almost two decades and while the normal strike contingencies worked better than hoped for, and overall targets were met with remaining employees, there is no doubt that the strike had an impact, which must now be successfully addressed if employees and the company are to meet the production targets we have for 2011.”