News24Wire reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has disputed claims by Eskom in a statement that the average salary of an Eskom employee stood at R737,000 per annum.

The union said that the statement, in which the R737,000 figure was mentioned, was a show of bad faith on the part of the state-owned power utility. Together with other unions, the NUM is currently negotiating wages with Eskom and has put forward a demand for a 15% wage increase. "The highest amount that can be earned by a bargaining unit employee is R650,460, while the lowest salary is R174,180. Eskom is intentionally misleading the public to gain public sympathy. We have noticed this thread of misleading information from Eskom," a statement from the NUM's negotiators claimed. Eskom's interim 2020 annual report shows that the power utility's 44,772 group employees recorded current unaudited employee benefit obligations of R4.5-billion in September 2020, compared to R4.02-billion in the same period of 2019. The 2020 integrated report noted that, despite the reduction in headcount, employee costs remained stable because of a 7% salary increase for bargaining unit employees, in line with the three-year wage agreement concluded in the prior year. The NUM, however, argued that wage inequality meant taking an average was not an accurate reflection of earnings at the power utility. The NUM’s statement maintained that its demands were reasonable and achievable and said workers deserved a "reasonable share" of the money in Eskom coffers. Eskom had earlier said that union demands were unaffordable.

• Read the original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News

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