NUM’s involvement in a health and safety compliance dispute has been found by the SA labour court to be irresponsible and unreasonable.

HOW is an employer to respond when workers effectively hold a mine to ransom?

In the case of PMG Mining’s Bishop Mine operations near Postmasburg in SA Northern Cape province, the refusal by some 16 truck drivers to take a test mandated by the Mine Health and Safety Act (MHSA) could have seen the entire mining enterprise closed down. When all but two steadfastly ignored management’s instruction to comply with the legislation, they appeared before a disciplinary inquiry and were later dismissed for gross insubordination and for failing to obey a “reasonable and lawful instruction”.