Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd. (IMP.JO), the world's second-largest producer of the metal, said Tuesday it would like to change union representation at its Rustenburg operations to ensure that all unions rather than just one are able to sit at the bargaining table.

The little-known Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, or AMCU, is trying to gain majority union representation at the mine against the incumbent, the country's biggest union, National Union of Mineworkers, or NUM. AMCU said it now has 10,000 members at the union, which would take the majority away from NUM.

Impala is carrying out a verification process to determine how many employees have switched to AMCU from NUM. It hopes that the verification process will encourage the two unions to seek a new union-representation agreement rather than pursue a four-month legal process to devise a new one.

"The ultimate process for us is to try and move away from a 'winner takes all approach' from both unions [and] get to a position where potentially we would have two or three unions," in negotiations regarding Rustenburg's operations, he said.

Johan Theron, the head of human resources at Impala, said he expects the independent union membership verification process to be completed in two to three weeks and hopes that the findings will result in a "softening of attitudes" between the two unions.

Tensions between the two unions reached a fresh high two weeks ago when an a clash between the two unions result in a gunshot wound to one of Impala's employees.

Impala currently employs about 30,000 people at Rustenburg, of which about 22,000 are unionized and a majority of them previously affiliated with NUM, Theron said.

If the verification process concludes that NUM no longer has majority representation, then the union has three months to reestablish majority control. If it fails to do so, then the company has to go through another month of legal procedures before it can replace the old union representation agreement with a new one. Nothing, however, precludes all parties involved from negotiating a new agreement beforehand, Theron said.

The current representation agreement stipulates that a union must represent more than 50% of the unionized workforce in order to sit at the negotiating table.

Brown said he is trying to get all stakeholders to negotiate a new multi-union representation agreement rather than wait for the legal route to run its course.

If "two unions have 30% or 35% [of the total unionized workforce], then you can't have a recognition agreement that sticks to 50%. You are going to have to sit down with all the parties concerned and try to constructively work towards some kind of multi-uinon recognition agreement," he noted.

Brown acknowledged that either of the two unions may seek to attract more members to their fold by promising to seek further wage hikes if they achieve majority union representation, but Brown noted that the unions and workers had been forewarned that management wouldn't entertain another wage increase in July following the acceptance of a second wage increase this year.

-By Alex MacDonald, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0)20 7842 9328; alex.macdonald@dowjones.com

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