Fin24 reports that the SA Road Passenger Bargaining Council (Sarpbac) announced last week that unions have accepted a 6% wage offer at the passenger bus wage talks and signed a deal with employers in the sector.

This came after months of tense negotiating between employer representatives and labour at the bargaining council, which threatened to collapse into a national strike in late April. The unions, namely Numsa, Satawu and the Transport and Allied Workers' Union returned to the negotiation table after a deadlock was reached ahead of the Easter weekend when employers said they could not afford the unions' 11% increase demand. The SA Bus Employers' Association and the Commuter Bus Employers' Association revised their initial offer of a 2.5% wage increase upward to 6%, which the unions then accepted. Sarpbac’s Gary Wilson said the wage hike would apply to the actual wage rate as well as to allowances. The wage increase will take effect as of 1 April retrospectively, and the agreement will be in place until 31 March 2023. The settlement will see the minimum wage in the sector rise from R40.43 per hour to R42.85 per hour. Allowances such as night shift, subsistence and travel, cross border, double driver and the tool allowance will all go up by 6%. Wilson said the issue of primary health care benefits in the sector was referred to Sarpbac's central committee for further engagement and research.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Fin24

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