BHP Hillside strike enters second week

A STRIKE at SA’s biggest aluminium producer has entered its second week, after workers at mining group BHP Billiton ’s Hillside smelter in Richards Bay rejected a revised wage offer on Friday.

BHP Billiton has not given details on the effects of the labour action on its production at the smelter. But the company has said it has implemented contingency plans to maintain production at Hillside.

SA has faced a glut of strikes throughout the year, with workers in both the public and private sectors demanding pay hikes sometimes as much as three times prevailing consumer price inflation.

Market forecasts are putting consumer price inflation figures for last month — to be released today — at 3,5%. Consumer price inflation for October was 3,4%.

Since last Wednesday, according to the National Union of Metalworkers , about 700 of its members working at Hillside have stayed away from work, demanding higher wages and better working conditions.

BHP Billiton is offering a four-year deal involving a general wage increase of 8,5% in the first year, and consumer price inflation plus 2% in each of the subsequent three years.

The offer was made last Thursday, with BHP Billiton having offered a 7,5% increase before that.

But the workers are demanding a 9% wage increase in the first year , followed by a 10% increase in the next and an 11% increase in the year after that. They want the agreement to last three years, not four.

The workers are also demanding an improved shift allowance of 20% of their hourly salary for each hour worked on weekends and during night shifts, regional secretary Mbuso Ngubane said.

BHP Billiton spokesperson Johnny Dladla said about 70% of the 1600 employees at the smelter had been working since the strike began and that neither safety nor production had been affected .

Labour analyst Tony Healy said BHP Billiton’s offer was reasonable . "Consumer price inflation plus 2% represents a very real increase on labour costs," he said.