Collective Bargaining Agreement: Mining Industry: General Conditions, 2026

This agreement between the Chamber of Mines and the two mine workers' unions repeals and replaces the 1990 general conditions agreement (S.I. 152 of 1990) and S.I. 109 of 1993 — the framework that has governed mine employment for thirty-five years.

Hours of work are 48 a week. For category 3 and 5 employees, and for bell-men, onsetters, skipmen and banksmen in category 4, that is six daily shifts of eight hours; for other mine employees on fixed or rotational shifts it is 48 hours Monday to Saturday in eight-hour days; catering employees work 48 hours with no more than 12 in any one day; and monthly-paid staff work 208 hours a month. Working a normal day off or a paid holiday is paid at twice the current wage. Employees on regular rotating shifts cannot be kept on afternoons or nights for more than four consecutive weeks without consent, and must spend at least an equal period on mornings.

Pension and gratuity are now linked. At the employer's discretion, a contract or permanent worker employed for more than three months either joins the Mining Industry Pension Fund under its rules or is paid a gratuity of 7.5% of total basic earnings for the duration of the contract in lieu of the employer's contribution. Either way, every employee is entitled to the 7.5% gratuity for the first three months before joining the Fund.

Acting appointments get a hard edge: acting for a more senior employee for two weeks or more requires a formal written appointment endorsed on the record of service, with the Schedule F allowance; and an employee who acts in a vacant post for more than three months is deemed appointed to that post from the day the three months is exceeded, unless a longer acting period was agreed in advance.

Transfers are split into permanent (over three months) and temporary (three months or less, or up to six months for a specific project). A permanent transfer needs one month's notice except in an emergency, and the employer must transport the employee and registered dependants.

The agreement also carries a child labour clause defining a child as anyone under 18 and prohibiting work that is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful or that keeps children out of school; provisions on contract workers, learnerships and certificates of registration; rules on performing work inside and outside an employee's category; leave in five forms — annual, sick, maternity, special and weekly rest; overtime and standby duty; remuneration, allowances, stoppages, deductions, rentals and service charges; termination and retrenchment; protective clothing; storage and insurance of tools; employees' representatives, workers committees and works councils; and a disciplinary code and grievance procedure.

Continuous service is defined generously for gratuity purposes — service with one employer, a group under the same head office, one mine irrespective of change of ownership, or a group of mines — and re-engagement within three months does not break it.

Wages themselves are set separately in Schedule E and by the periodic wage agreements; the rates gazetted for 2025 are in S.I. 19 of 2026. This summary covers the conditions of service that this agreement establishes, not the full detail of its ten schedules.