Mine workers emerge from the pithead at the Harmony Gold mine in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg,
Workers under agency contractors in Australia receive significantly poorer pay and employment conditions than those under direct-hire arrangements, according to a new study. REUTERS

Namibia's Mineworkers Union of Namibia (MUN) on Wednesday served Rio Tinto's Rossing uranium mine with a strike notice after failing to reach a deal in talks over output incentives, with a stoppage expected to start on Friday.

MUN, which represents some 1,200 of Rossing's 1,600 workers, has been protesting over differences in bonuses paid to workers and management in a dispute which already caused a three-day illegal strike in July.

We have served the company with a notice to strike today (Wednesday), MUN's Rossing branch representative Ismael Kasuto told Reuters.

The strike is set to commence on Friday at 08:00 (0600

GMT).

The union will again meet with Rossing management for mediated talks later on Wednesday in a bid to avoid a strike that could hurt output at one of the world's largest uranium producers.

We hope the meeting will solve the situation, but we don't think the company is committed. They do not want to move forward, Kasuto said.

Rossing has said it had two different incentive schemes for workers and management and is unwilling to bow to the union's demands, calling them unreasonable and one-sided.

Workers demand 30,000 Namibian dollars each on top of N$11,000 they have already received.

According to the union, the company had filed court papers to declare the strike illegal.

Rossing officials were not immediately available to comment.

Strike action would further hurt output at Rossing, whose production was hit by heavy rains earlier in the year. Rossing produced around 8 million lb of uranium last year. Rio Tinto has a 68.6 percent stake in the mine.

Court Namibia Rio tinto Namibia