BL Premium reports that trade unions demanding above-inflation pay rises at Eskom have launched a scathing attack on the Treasury for being “reckless” in attaching stringent conditions to its multibillion rand debt relief for the ailing power utility.
Eskom, which relies on government bailouts to power the economy, has debt of more than R420bn. The government has said it will provide it with debt relief of R254bn over the next three years to enable Eskom to meet its full debt and interest payments. However, one of the conditions National Treasury attached to the debt relief plan is that Eskom may not implement remuneration adjustments that “negatively affect its overall financial position and sustainability” over the three-year debt relief period. In a joint media briefing by leaders of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity on Friday, Numsa’s Mac Chavalala criticised the Treasury for “beginning to behave like the World Bank in terms of the conditions attached in assisting Eskom”. Numsa’s Mbuso Ngubane said the Treasury’s conditions attached to the debt relief were “unfair” as workers had not received decent pay for years. Solidarity’s Gideon du Plessis said any offer below consumer price inflation “is something we cannot even consider taking back to our members”. He criticised the Eskom negotiating team for treating the wage talks lightly, saying the Eskom team was “unprepared”, “destructive” and being generally sloppy during the first round of talks, which began on 19 April. The second round of talks resumes on 8 May.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only)
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