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Dispute declared in civil engineering industry over unions’ demand for 15% wage increase

Details

boardroomtableBL Premium reports that employers and unions in the struggling construction industry are set to hold mediation talks after a deadlock in wage negotiations.

This follows unions’ demands for a three-year 15% wage hike across the board. The Building Construction & Allied Workers Union (Bcawu) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have both declared a dispute at the Bargaining Council for the Civil Engineering Industry (BCCEI) after two rounds of negotiations. Employers in the civil engineering sector have proposed a wage freeze for 2021 due to the negative impact of Covid-19, and consumer price index-related increases for 2022 and 2023. On Wednesday, Bcawu’s lead negotiator Modupi Maile pointed out that construction workers earned an average of R30 an hour, which worked out to R5,400 a month. If employers acceded to the 15% wage increase, the lowest paid worker would take home R6,210 a month. He went on to comment: “The unions have not threatened to strike, we are very much keen to negotiate on behalf of our members. We want to go back to the negotiating table, the employers must stop playing games and wasting the bargaining council’s resources.” Tebatso Mokoena, the NUM’s co-ordinator in the construction sector, said a wage freeze would be unfair to workers as they lost about 20% of their wages during the most stringent parts of the Covid-19 lockdown. Johann Preiss, the national collective bargaining co-ordinator of the Consolidated Employers Organisation, a body representing employers in the civil engineering industry, refused to comment.

  • Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (paywall access only)


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