BusinessLive reports that the drawn-out Eskom wage negotiations are set to continue this week after trade unions refused to budge on their demand for bonuses.
Two months after the talks started, parties are no closer to a wage agreement, with organised labour telling the Eskom management on Friday that there would be no deal without bonus payments. The struggling power utility announced two weeks ago that it would not be paying bonuses due to its financial difficulties, just as unions seemed amenable to the rest of Eskom’s latest proposed wage increase package. The utility has two wage increase options on the table that workers have yet to respond to due to the differences over bonuses. Workers are demanding 12% of their annual income as a one-off bonus. National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said the issue remained a "deal breaker" and there would be no deal without it. The union pointed out that the company’s performance scorecard indicated that workers had met their targets and it was in line with their contractual agreements with Eskom that they should be paid bonuses as a result.
- Read this report by Theto Mahlakoana in full at BusinessLive
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