City Press reports that the unbundling of Eskom into three separate companies may be derailed over trade union grievances about a lack of consultation.
Solidarity is threatening an urgent court application after three trade unions, itself included, asserted that employees were not consulted about the unbundling of the power utility. The government last year released a reform “roadmap” according to which Eskom would be functionally split into three separate entities, namely electricity generation, transmission and distribution, before the end of the year. But last month, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter advised that the legal separation could possibly only be finalised in 2023. Eskom last week confirmed that Solidarity had submitted a grievance to the CCMA regarding the transfer of personnel from the group technology division to the three new divisions, because the unions were not consulted about the process. The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has also lodged a grievance with the CCMA, while the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is also opposed to the unbundling of Eskom without any consultation with employees. The three unions have moreover submitted a joint internal grievance with Eskom. The proposed transfers would affect about 1,400 employees, said Solidarity’s Thinus Jacobs, who also said that the union was considering an urgent court action to halt the transfer process. Labour expert Chris Jacobs advised the law very clearly required that employees be consulted when their employer planned to restructure, even when this was not meant to lead to retrenchments.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Antoinette Slabbert at News24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page