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Engineering News reports that the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) has strongly recommended that affiliated member companies should start implementing a final wage offer put forward by the federation last week.
The increases in terms of the final offer amount to wage hikes of between 5% and 6% in the metals and engineering sector, depending on job grade. The improved offer to metalworker unions was made in an effort to end strike action led since early October by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa). “While we request individual member companies to be guided by this recommendation, we, nevertheless, implore member companies to be guided by circumstances and the prevailing industrial relations climate on each and every shop floor,” the federation stated. Of the five unions that have bargained with Seifsa, Solidarity and Uasa have accepted the new offer. The SA Equity Workers Association has rejected the new offer, but its members are not out on strike. Numsa and the Metal and Electrical Workers Union of SA (Mewusa) remain on strike. Should companies elect to implement the new offer, the implications will be that all scheduled employees, barring Numsa and Mewusa members, would receive the increases. If an individual Numsa or Mewusa member elects to abandon participation in the strike and signs an undertaking, he or she would also receive the increase. Implementation of the final offer measn that employees would be entitled to back-pay from 1 July.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
- Read too, Employer group warns of wage and jobs wipeout if Numsa strike drags on, at Fin24 (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page