It has always denied that NUM members are being asked to work longer hours.
BBC: NEWS | UK | England | West Yorkshire | Miners face sack over new hours
After the ruling, Mr Kitchen said it was "regrettable" the NUM had to bring the case.
Shop stewards from the giant National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have been killed or threatened.
Heath's defeat in 1974 and the re-election of a Labour government helped entrench the NUM's industrial muscle.
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Chris Kitchen, NUM General Secretary, said his members had expressed "disbelief and disappointment" at the company's announcement.
Cyril Ramaphosa, once boss of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), is often cited as a case in point.
Dave Price, NUM branch secretary at Maltby, said he was optimistic the geological problems at the site could be solved.
Ex-miners' union president Arthur Scargill has reached an out-of-court settlement with the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) over expense claims.
Speaking at the time, Mr Scargill said the leadership at the NUM in Yorkshire had taken "vindictive action" against him.
He was president of the NUM from 1982 until 2002, and led the union during the miners' strike in the 1980s.
National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Lesiba Seshoka told Reuters the official had been killed "execution style" but gave no further details.
The NUM said it would appeal against the decision, which was due to be heard at the Court of Appeal in January.
Analysts say workers across the industry are disaffected with the NUM and other mainstream unions, regarding them as too close to the employers.
BBC: South Africa strikes: Sacked platinum miners reinstated
The NUM had asked Mr Justice Underhill at London's High Court to declare that it had no such continuing obligation to Mr Scargill.
Counsel for the NUM, Nicholas Davidson QC, argued the case was about whether an obligation existed - not whether one ought to exist.
Mr Scargill was president of the NUM until July 2002 and led the union during the year-long miners' strike from 1984 to 1985.
If I could get used to navigating via the numeric keypad with the num-lock key off, I'd be perfectly happy with the new keyboard.
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They have been dubbed the national union of ministers - the NUM - and are flexing muscles that have not been stretched for a while.
Because of the way the NUM handled the strike my brother received no financial support, despite being married with two children and having a mortgage to pay.
"They agreed to reinstate all the dismissed workers on the provision that they return to work by Tuesday, " NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka told the Reuters news agency.
BBC: South Africa strikes: Sacked platinum miners reinstated
Earlier this year Mr Scargill, 74, sued the NUM Yorkshire Area Trust Fund over a range of expenses he said he was owed, which included a car allowance.
Mr Scargill, 74, said he was given use of the rented three-bed Barbican flat for life when he became NUM president in 1982, a tenure that lasted 20 years.
Here was the former NUM President immortalising himself as a working class hero through his description of the day he urged 15, 000 of Birmingham's engineering workers to join the striking miners.
BBC: Analysis: Arthur Scargill's silence over Thatcher death
Populist leaders like the former African National Congress (ANC) Youth League leader Julius Malema have portrayed the NUM leadership as greedy fat cats, out of touch with the struggles of ordinary workers.
Gwede Mantashe, the gruff secretary general of the governing ANC and a former NUM leader, placed most of the blame for the unrest squarely at the feet of Lonmin and other mine owners.
Mr Davidson said that the litigation, which will look at documents dating back 30 years, was concerned with identifying what terms were agreed between duly authorised representatives of the NUM and Mr Scargill.
The stand-off is thought to have taken place between the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) - allied to the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party - and the militant Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu).
Two Marikana workers were arrested Oct. 12 for the murder of a NUM official, at his home, who had been expected to testify in front of a commission regarding the death of 34 people Aug. 16.
Mr Justice Underhill was told the court action concerned whether the NUM would have to meet the apartment costs for the rest of Mr Scargill's life and the life of his widow, should he leave one.
The most recent violence at Lonmin spun from a rivalry between the emerging Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, or AMCU, and NUM, the country's largest mine union, who are competing for majority union membership in South Africa's platinum mines.
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