The trade union Solidarity on Friday warned of more irregularities regarding the retrenchments at gold company DRDGold's (DRD) Blyvoor mine.

The union pointed to DRDGold's neglect to send the prescribed Section 52 notice of the planned retrenchments to the Department of Mining's Minerals and Mining Development Board (MMDB).

The board's function is, among other things, to inform the minister of mining of any retrenchments or restructuring in the mining industry, Solidarity said.

"The board should be informed of planned retrenchments in order to see to it that the company's social plan in the case of retrenchments is implemented.

"Section 52 of the Mineral and Petroleum Resources Development Act requires a company to inform the MMDB at the start of the retrenchment consultation process of planned retrenchments. This must be done if a mine intends to retrench more than 500 employees or 10 percent of its labour force (whichever figure is the lowest)," Solidarity said.

It said that DRDGold had originally planned on retrenching nearly 1300 employees at its Blyvooruitzicht mine, but did not inform the MMDB.

According to Solidarity, this is not the only issue surrounding the retrenchment process that has been handled incorrectly. The union said it had submitted an application to the Labour Court for an urgent interdict against DRDGold following the company's repeated refusal to involve Solidarity in the Section 189 process.

"The company should first investigate alternatives to retrenchment, but instead they are trying to sidestep the legal requirements at every turn," said Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans.

"Solidarity demands that the process be restarted and that the correct procedures be followed so that the employees can get the protection to which they are entitled," he added.

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