It is reported that trade union Solidarity has praised ferrochrome producer Samancor Chrome for reducing the number of retrenchments at its operations.

Mr Jaco Kleynhans a Solidarity spokesman in a statement said that "Samancor Chrome's successful implementation of measures such as redeployment and voluntary early retirement have proven that economic setbacks do not necessarily have to lead to the retrenchment of employees.”

The union said that in March this year Samancor Chrome announced that it planned to retrench almost 900 of the group's 4,690 employees. The planned retrenchments were expected to take place at all six of the group's units.

Solidarity said that "Following the successful implementation of various measures, the company has now succeeded in significantly reducing retrenchments.”

It added that the retrenchments planned for the group's Western chrome mine (outside Mooinooi), Ferrometals (in Witbank), Middelburg Ferrochrome, and Tubatse Ferrochrome (outside Steelpoort) had been averted.

Retrenchments at the group's Eastern chrome mine as well as the Samancor head office (in Johannesburg) were however, still going ahead.

Solidarity said that “It was not yet clear how many jobs would be affected.”

(Sourced from Business Report)