IOL News reports that talks facilitated by the CCMA between the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) and the City of Tshwane on 10 and 23 June 2025 broke down without an agreement over an outstanding 3.5% wage increase for the 2021/22 period.

The talks followed a 9 May Labour Court ruling, which sent the matter back to the SA Local Government Bargaining Council for a new hearing on the 3.5% wage increase, in respect of which the city initially sought an exemption. The court also ruled that the city was exempt from implementing a 5.4% wage increase for the 2023/2024 financial year after it cited financial constraints. The city approached the court after its application for exemption from a wage agreement with the unions was rejected by the bargaining council. Samwu’s Donald Monakisi reported that the union has formally appealed against the ruling on the 5.4% salary increase and was waiting for the Labour Appeal Court to schedule a hearing date. Regarding the outstanding 3.5% salary increase, he said the union and the city failed to reach an agreement during the recent CCMA-led negotiations regarding the process to finalise such an increase for employees. Monakisi explained that the CCMA-facilitated talks were held ahead of the upcoming exemption hearing at the bargaining council on 21 July 2025, in an effort to narrow down the issues in dispute and explore possible settlement options that could be formalised as a bargaining council award. While the CCMA meetings failed to yield consensus between the two parties, they agreed on the value of ongoing dialogue before the scheduled hearing.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Rapula Moatshe at IOL News

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