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BusinessLive reports that Eskom has finally signed a three-year wage agreement with trade unions following three months of gruelling talks that deadlocked numerous times and affected electricity supply.
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) acceded to the settlement proposal the utility made a month ago of 7.5% increases for 2018 and 7% for 2019 and 2020. The third union at Eskom, Solidarity, signed the wage agreement in July. The agreement follows Eskom’s decision to declare a dispute of mutual interest at the CCMA after the unions refused to sign the deal, demanding that the company should drop its disciplinary charges against employees who took illegal industrial action. The agreement reached late on Wednesday night made no mention of the unions’ ultimatum not to sign until Eskom guaranteed it would not dismiss workers, despite the outcomes of disciplinary hearings. Numsa’s Phakamile Hlubi-Majola commented that “the long and the short of it is that Eskom will be able to proceed with a disciplinary process, where there is evidence of misconduct.” However, according to her, there would be no dismals. The unions did get Eskom to agree that there would be no changes in workers’ conditions of service until 2021. It was unclear how this would apply in reality, as Eskom has already admitted its staff complement was in need of a shakeup to ensure it was optimal and in line with industry norms globally.
- Read this report by Theto Mahlakoana in full at BusinessLive
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