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BL Premium writes that employees at SAA took a beating in last week’s strike, getting nothing more than the 5.9% they were offered on the eve of the strike. They had to throw in the towel after losing a week’s wages, but at Eskom things will not be over quite so fast.
Eskom is a far more complex and important institution, and the energy transition — which is really what restructuring Eskom is all about — entails deep social and economic change. It is intensely political with many trade-offs to be made. A face-off with the unions is not a viable strategy and negotiations will need to be profound and meaningful. Unfortunately, the basis for the required deep co-operation between labour and Eskom management and the government is absent. Not only will the new CEO Andre De Ruyter walk in on day one covered with the mud that has been slung about by a vicious antiwhite lobby, making employees somewhat doubtful about his skill set and intentions, but he will find the relationship with labour has been thoroughly neglected. There has been almost no communication at all with those who work there about what the future holds. Only one thing has been agreed, namely that there will be no retrenchments. Labour is thoroughly against the impending split of Eskom into three parts as it fears it’s being done to make Eskom easier to privatise. It is also evident that when it comes to discussion of the energy transition there is no agreement on the facts. What all of this means is that the relationships at Eskom, already neglected for so long, will require time, research resources, workstreams, impact assessments, mediators and advisers to build and guide the process.
- Read the full original of the above article by Carol Paton at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page