The wage negotiations between the Chamber of Mines and South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have come to a standstill after workers rejected the offer, and now seek a mediation to solve the gridlock.
The Chamber of Mines is represented by firms such as Glencore, Anglo American Coal and Exxaro.
NUM rejected the Chamber’s offer of wage increase calling it ‘insulting’ as the employers offered to increase the salary of workers to 6.5%.
Workers demanded for an increase of up to 15%, but the chamber agreed to revise the wages from the initial offer of 4% to 6.5%.
Reuters cited NUM coordinator Peter Bailey as saying: "The employer came back with nothing after we rejected their offer.
"We have declared a dispute and will go through a mediation process."
The industry players are saying that the coal prices are low and the demand has fallen by 10%, and the industry expects further fall in prices due to low demand from top consumer like China.
The Chamber of Mines offered its revised offer on Tuesday , but due to lack of a proper result the Chamber is expected to meet with unions again which could lead to a possibly increase in wage percentage.