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BL Premium reports on a breakdown in negotiations between the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) and its employees over wage increases.
Members of the Commission Staff Association (CSA), an in-house trade union that claims membership of 90% of the employees of the CCMA, have threatened to go on strike over an offer to increase wages by just 1.5%, way below the inflation rate and that projected by the Reserve Bank over the next two years. The commission has been hurt by crippling budget cuts from the Treasury, which are set to reach about R500m in the medium term. In a letter dated 12 November, CSA general secretary Nkosinathi Mkhwanazi told members that salary negotiations had failed after six months. He pointed out that the initial demand of a 10% increase, since lowered to 6%, was based on an increased workload over the past two years. If the threatened strike goes ahead, operations could grind to a halt at an organisation that is already beset with huge delays and backlogs. Mkhwanazi stated in his letter that the parties failed to reach an agreement on Friday and the union “decided to declare a deadlock when the CCMA blatantly refused to table a reasonable offer” or move from its initial offer of a 1.5% increase. CCMA director Cameron Morajane said the declaration of a dispute merely meant “that the parties must further engage on an urgent basis to attempt to resolve the impasse”. He said that it was only when this “urgent engagement fails that the CSA may refer a dispute for conciliation” and that engagements were continuing. “No pending industrial action has been instituted,” Morajane indicated.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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