Reuters reported that union at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc's Grasberg mine in Indonesia has halted a return to work after a three-month strike pending the resolution of a local labour dispute.

Senior union official Virgo Solossa said that local contractor PT Kuala Pelabuhan Indonesia must guarantee that no workers who participated in the strike would lose their jobs.

The delay in the return to work will push back the resumption of full operations of the world's second biggest copper mine. The Arizona-based company had earlier said it expected full operations at the mine to resume in early 2012.

Police called a meeting on Tuesday between Freeport management, officials at its contractor, PT Kuala Pelabuhan Indonesia and the Freeport and KPI unions in a bid to resolve a dispute over lay offs by KPI, Virgo Solossa, a senior union official, said by telephone.

The meeting ended with KPI officials asking for time to consult its board of directors in Jakarta.

Mr Solossa said that "The ball is with PT KPI now whether they would respect the agreement to not do any lay-offs.” He added that "Once they respect the agreement, we will send more workers to work.”

Mr Solossa said that if the demand of the workers was not met, the result could be another strike.

The company said that 18 of its workers were sacked and another 101 temporarily suspended in September and October pending further evaluation.

(Sourced from Thomson Reuters)