The National Union of Mineworkers (Numsa) has hit out at ArcelorMittal SA (Amsa) for allegedly informing the public about retrenchments before telling the trade union.

“The management at Amsa informed the media first and did not bother to inform the union until much later. For this they must be strongly condemned. They displayed a total disregard for their employees and the union,” Numsa Sedibeng regional secretary Mokete Makoko said in a statement on Friday.

“The notice was received [by Numsa] on the 10th of July 2019, hours after ArcelorMittal South Africa (AMSA) had gone public to the media about its intentions to restructure.”

According to Numsa, Amsa said it employs 8,769 people, but it is “difficult to estimate the exact number of employees who may eventually be affected by the proposed restructuring”.

But Reuters reported that Amsa said on Wednesday it expected its restructuring to affect more than 2,000 jobs, after warning its headline earnings for the first half of 2019 would fall by at least R650m.

Numsa believes this shows Amsa has decided how many jobs it will cut.

“This is another example of the flagrant disregard which the management of Amsa has for workers and their right to due process … It also comes as no surprise that the management of Amsa is proceeding with this course of action, just a few months after our members embarked on a strike to end outsourcing at the company. They clearly want to punish workers for fighting to end the exploitation of contract workers supplied by so-called service providers,” Makoko said.