This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
BL Premium reports that union leaders have signed a 7% across-the-board wage deal with Eskom. This added R1bn-plus to the salary bill of the cash-strapped state-owned company and ended a week-long wildcat strike that deepened SA’s electricity supply crisis.
The pay hike agreement, which is above the headline inflation rate of 5.9% forecast by the Reserve Bank for 2022, will also see about 28,374 Eskom employees in the bargaining unit getting a R400 increase in the housing allowance. The increase can be seen as a setback for Eskom’s turnaround plans, which include containing employee costs that have soared more than 60% over the past 10 years to about R33bn. Eskom HR executive Elsie Pule commented: “I must actually put it on record that the offer that we signed today, we actually [can’t] afford as an organisation. We need to make plans to find additional money to fund this agreement. The impact that it will have on our wage bill is in excess of a billion [rand].” Eskom is in the middle of a sweeping operational overhaul that includes splitting into three units and containing costs as its recovery from state capture. Union leaders hailed the wage agreement as a victory for workers, whose finances have been squeezed by the rapidly rising cost of living. They also chastised Eskom for the manner in which it handled the wage negotiations, with Numsa’s Irvin Jim saying that if Eskom employees were essential service workers then they must be treated with respect. Solidarity’s Helgard Cronjé commented: “I think this agreement will bring some sort of stability and economic recovery. Eskom treated these negotiations in a strange way and in a disrespectful manner towards employees [by] trying to abuse the fact that they are an essential service.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
- Read too, New Eskom deal with unions to add R1 billion to wage bill, at Fin24
En ook, Eskom gaan sukkel om loonooreenkoms te bekostig, by Maroela Media
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page