Additionally, the lawsuits filed by Maria de los Angeles Enriquez Bacame and Norberto Bustamante have been dismissed and closed without prejudice to the Company. As of September 30, 2023, the remaining cases were still pending resolution.
It is currently not possible to determine the extent of the damages sought in these state and federal lawsuits but the Company believes that these lawsuits are without merit. Accordingly, the Company is vigorously defending against them. Nevertheless, the Company believes that none of the legal proceedings resulting from the spill, individually or in the aggregate, would have a material effect on its financial position or results of operations.
Labor matters:
Peruvian operations: 68.6% of the Company's 4,456 Peruvian employees were unionized as of September 30, 2023. Currently, there are six separate unions, none of which represents the majority of workers, as defined by current Peruvian labor legislation.
During 2021, the Company held talks with the six unions to sign collective agreements prior to their effective dates. As a result, between the duration of the agreement, a long-term agreement bonus of S/10,000 (approximately $2,753) was granted in June and December 2021, the Company signed collective agreements with the six unions with durations between three to six years. All of them granted annual salary increases of 5%. Additionally, each agreement granted, among other things, a signing bonus of between S/45,000 (approximately $12,386) and S/90,000 (approximately $24,773), depending on the union that signed a six-year extension of the collective bargaining agreement. All these concepts were recorded as labor expense. In 2022, these collective agreements were executed and the Company does not have any collective agreement pending to be negotiated with the unions.
In December 2022, the Company reached a settlement with one of the unions regarding compliance with an 2018-2019 Arbitration Award. As part of this settlement, the Company made a one-time payment to each union member of S/4,000 (approximately $1,101) as a compensation bonus and also paid a signing bonus of S/1,000 (approximately $275).
In the first quarter of 2023, the Company began applying the terms of the agreement entered into with the six unions pursuant to Law 31632, which stipulates new conditions for compensation of leaves granted during COVID-19. Within the current framework of labor regulations and the agreements with all six unions, this compensation has been adapted to align with current working hours of the mining sector. These conditions will be in effect until December 1, 2023.
In June 2023, the Company held two meetings with the unions to discuss different issues of collective interest. In these meetings, the unions expressed concerns regarding the current economic situation, including the rise in the cost of living in Peru, as well as issues related to the provision of services granted by the Company. In this regard, in the third quarter of 2023, the Company released a formal response to each union where it is confirmed that there are collective labor agreements in force with each union. These agreements have regulated all the benefits related to salaries and working conditions. The Company has been complying with all its obligations under such collective labor agreements and guarantees it will continue to maintain on-going communication with the unions to ensure harmony.
Mexican operations: In recent years, the Mexican operations have experienced a positive improvement in their labor environment, as workers opted to change their affiliation from the Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores Mineros, Metalurgicos y Similares de la Republica Mexicana (the “National Mining Union”) to other less politicized unions.
The workers of the San Martin mine were on strike since July 2007. On February 28, 2018, the striking workers of the San Martín mine of IMMSA held an election to vote on the union that would hold the collective bargaining agreement at the San Martin mine. The Federacion Nacional de Sindicatos Independientes (the National Federation of Independent Unions) won the vote by a majority. Nevertheless, the vote was challenged by the National Mining Union. On June 26, 2018, the Federal Mediation and Arbitration Board issued a ruling recognizing the election results. Due to the agreement between workers and the Company to end the protracted strike, on August 22, 2018, the Federal Mediation and Arbitration Board authorized the restart of operations of the San Martin mine. Such authorization was challenged by the National Mining Union. On April 4, 2019, the Federal Mediation and Arbitration Board recognized, once again, the election results from February 28, 2018, by which the National Federation of Independent Unions won by a majority. In