Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) and Lonmin are saving employees more than R40m annually in debt repayments, after reducing emoluments attachment orders (EAOs) and lowering interest rates on unpaid debt. Amplats was saving nearly 2,100 employees R33.4m in annual debt repayments, CEO Chris Griffith said on Wednesday. Lonmin had reduced the debt owed by employees by R7m through its EAO review programme and had stopped 573 EAOs in the past 12 months, human resources executive Abey Kgotle said. EAOs, which are used by creditors to collect unpaid debt via salary deductions, are court orders that employers are compelled to comply with. Following the Marikana massacre, the extent of mine worker indebtedness that had contributed to worker unrest and demands for better pay, began to emerge, particularly the widespread abuse of EAOs, gobbling up sometimes 75% of worker salaries and leaving them with little take-home pay. This prompted the mining sector to introduce various measures to tackle...
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