Bloomberg reports that about half of SA’s record electricity outages last week were caused by employees staying away from work during illegal protests, Eskom CEO André de Ruyter told reporters on Friday.

The state-owned power utility was forced to implement stage 6 power outages because of disruptions that lasted a week after negotiations on wage increases stalled. The strike is illegal because electricity is considered an essential service in SA. In addition, in the previous week Eskom obtained a court interdict that compelled workers to return to their posts. “We will be taking disciplinary action against workers that have stayed away unlawfully,” De Ruyter said. The two biggest labor unions at Eskom on 28 June urged their members to return to work after a meeting with the company. Still, about 90% of staff at three coal-fired power plants — Matla, Hendrina and Arnot — did not report for duty. The situation, in which “the country is held hostage by wildcat actions,” was not sustainable because plant operators could not be replaced at short notice, said De Ruyter. He also confirmed that a briefing had taken place with President Cyril Ramaphosa, but declined to provide details.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Paul Burkhardt & Rene Vollgraaff at Moneyweb
• Read too, Eskom CEO says he briefed Ramaphosa on power crisis and they discussed a number of potential options, at Moneyweb

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page