The trade union Solidarity today demanded that the world’s largest diamond producer, De Beers, should respect labour legislation during its planned retrenchment of a third of its labour force. De Beers is refusing to issue a Section 189 notice, explaining the rationale and scope of the retrenchments, to Solidarity.

“Everyone in South Africa is being traumatised by the massive number of retrenchments. For years De Beers has operated a monopoly and, in addition, they have posted record profits. Now the company is interpreting labour legislation unilaterally. On Friday Solidarity will take up De Beers’ behaviour with the department of minerals and energy’s task team, which will be meeting again about the retrenchment crisis,” according to Jaco Kleynhans, spokesperson of Solidarity.