Low iron-ore price killing jobs at Kumba Iron Ore
- Published on 23 Jul 2015
- HR Pulse News Desk
Kumba Iron Ore has taken the knife to 1,772 jobs as low iron-ore prices cut a swathe through the industry.
Out of a previous complement of 572, only 221 permanent and fixed-term employees remained at head office, with the 351 head office jobs cut by the Anglo American group company in the first quarter representing a 61% reduction and a saving of R200-million a year. A 31% reduction of permanent and fixed-term employees is under consultation at Kumba’s Sishen and Kolomela iron-ore mines in the Northern Cape as part of a Section 189A legal process, which will cut permanent and fixed-term employees by 261 people, reducing the employee complement from 846 to 585.
Kumba’s closure of its Thabazimbi mine, in Limpopo, will cut permanent employees by 800 and fixed-term employees by 360, taking the total job cuts carried out so far to 1,772. In presenting 61% lower headline earnings for the six months to 30 June, Kumba CEO Norman Mbazima said that more than 200 individual cost-cutting measures undertaken in the six months to 30 June had reduced controllable costs by R1.8-billion. He also said that “we have to work doubly hard to be able to compete in the market we’re faced with right now.”
