Gold miners with silicosis to get up to R500,000 in class-action settlement
Gold miners in SA with silicosis or tuberculosis, or their dependents, will secure payments of between R70,000 and R500,000 from a trust fund set up by seven mining companies and lawyers for sick workers to settle the country’s largest class-action law suit. The mining companies have provided for R5bn towards the settlement agreement that was signed in Johannesburg on Thursday. The settlement has to be ratified by the court and is unlikely to be implemented before the third quarter of this year. The agreement set out 10 classes of claimants who can benefit from the agreement, which is over and above the statutory payments from a government-administered fund that disburses money for those afflicted by occupational diseases. "There is no limit on the number of potential claimants. Any claimant who has a qualifying claim will receive the compensation due to them during the lifetime of the trust," the parties to the agreement said in a statement. The mining companies will pay R845m towa...
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