The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) can confirm that it has received a notice from ArcelorMittal South Africa in terms of section 189 of the Labour Relations Act to restructure the organization, which may result in retrenchments. The notice was received on the 10th of July 2019, hours after ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) had gone public to the media about its intentions to restructure. The management at AMSA informed the media first, and did not bother to inform the union until much later. For this they must be strongly condemned. They displayed a total disregard for their employees and the union.
 
Furthermore, we have noted that in the retrenchment letter AMSA says that it employs 8769 employees, and goes on to say that:
“it is difficult to estimate the exact number of employees who may eventually be effected by the proposed restructuring, as this is subject to the outcome of the consultation process, and the consideration of alternative measures.”
 
It makes no reference to a possible number of employees who will be affected. And yet, AMSA in its press release to the media on the restructuring has said the following:
 
“It is anticipated that in excess of 2,000 positions — full-time equivalents — may be affected. The final outcome and number of positions affected is subject to a formal consultation process”
 
It is clear that AMSA has already gone ahead of the consultation process and made a determination of the number of workers who will be affected. Again, this is another example of the flagrant disregard which the management of AMSA has for workers and their right to due process. To add salt to injury, AMSA has taken a decision to review some tenders issued to contractors referred to as “service providers”. This has resulted in those contractor employers serving the union with Section 189 notices. This obviously means that more than the number anticipated will lose their jobs.
 
 
It also comes as no surprise that the management of AMSA is proceeding with this course of action, just a few months after our members embarked on a strike to end outsourcing at the company. They clearly want to punish workers for fighting to end the exploitation of contract workers supplied by so-called service providers.
 
As NUMSA we will be attending the consultation meeting which is expected to take place sometime next week, in order to get more details about the proposed restructuring. We will do everything in our power to minimize the number of jobs which will be lost.
 
Aluta continua!
The struggle continues!

Issued by NUMSA