Today's Labour News
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.
Independent Media promises to pay staff in full before the end of the month
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Fin24 reports that just days after staff were told that their salary payments for March would be short, Independent Media has promised to pay journalists their full salaries before the end of the month.
PSA demands details of 'secretive' court settlement between PIC and Ayo
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TimesLive reports that the Public Servants Association (PSA) says it rejects the secretive deal between the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) and Ayo Technology Solutions and has demanded transparency about the settlement.
SAHRC's investigation into former acting CEO continues amid appointment of new head
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News24 reports that while the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) announced Vusimuzi Mkhize as its new CEO on Monday, it said its investigation into former acting CEO Chantal Kisoon was continuing.
Samwu to challenge legislative ban on municipal workers holding political posts
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BL Premium reports that the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) is set to approach the Constitutional Court to challenge controversial legislation banning all municipal workers from holding political party positions.
Morning roundup of labour news on Tuesday, 28 March 2023
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In our Tuesday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
With Sasol CEO’s term set to end in 2024, succession plan in place
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Bloomberg reports that Sasol has a plan in place to find a successor for CEO Fleetwood Grobler, whose term of running SA’s biggest publicly traded company by revenue will end next year.
Loadshedding destroying production, growth, jobs in the metals and engineering sector, Seifsa warns
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Engineering News reports that according to the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa), companies in the metals and engineering sector have seen production decline by 34.2% over the past year, with production in the sector estimated to contract by 5.3% this year.
NUM says Ramokgopa wrong to blame technical issues at Eskom and not corruption for energy crisis
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BusinessLive reports that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which is the largest union at Eskom, is at loggerheads with newly appointed electricity minister, Kgosientsho Ramokgopa over his claim that the infrastructure breakdowns at the power utility are due to technical issues and not corruption.
Increase in reported sexual misconduct cases in schools, but few dismissals
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TimesLive reports that the DA is concerned that of the 191 cases of sexual misconduct reported to the SA Council of Educators (Sace) in the 2021/22 period, only 23 disciplinary proceedings were instituted and only four educators were struck off the roll.
Unions representing a majority of public servants signal acceptance of state’s 7.5% pay hike offer
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BL Premium reports that public service unions representing a majority of SA’s more than 1.3-million public servants seem about to accept a 7.5% sweetened pay hike deal.
Millions paid by taxpayers to buy generators and inverters for ministers and deputy ministers
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Sunday Times reports that as South Africans suffer under loadshedding, minister and their deputies have been shielded from blackouts by the government spending more than R7m to buy generators and inverters for them at their official homes.
Roundup on Monday, 27 March 2023 of weekend labour reports
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In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 24 March 2023.
Harmony employee dies in incident at Kusasalethu gold mine
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Harmony Gold on Friday reported a fatality at its Kusasalethu gold mine, 90 km west of Johannesburg.
Divide between public sector unions deepens as minority coalition rejects government’s revised wage offer
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Fin24 reports that the rift between trade unions in the public sector deepened on Thursday, with the alliance of unions that went on strike accusing those that did not of being sweetheart unions and of lying to workers about the 7.5% wage offer by the government.
Morning roundup of labour news on Friday, 24 March 2023
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In our Friday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
MTN seeks visa dispensation to import skills from elsewhere in Africa to manage blackouts
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Business Times reports that the MTN Group is seeking a visa dispensation to recruit electrical engineers from other African countries to help manage its towers and network as it transitions some infrastructure off the grid in the face of intensive load-shedding.
Tribunal upholds debarment of former Standard Bank staff who ‘dishonestly’ activated MyMo accounts to boost sales
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BL Premium reports that the Financial Services Tribunal has dismissed applications by former employees of Standard Bank to have their debarment from working in financial services reconsidered, finding they had acted dishonestly.
SA's economy won’t grow in 2023, says IMF in bleak forecast
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Fin24 reports that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Wednesday announced a bleak forecast for SA for 2023, with economic growth projected to reach only 0.1%.
Morning roundup of labour news on Thursday, 23 March 2023
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In our Thursday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
Former Eskom senior buyer accused of fraud of almost R15m gets R100,000 bail
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IOL reports that a woman accused of defrauding Eskom of almost R15 million appeared in the Hendrina Magistrate's Court on Wednesday where she was released on R100,000 bail.
Consumer inflation of 7% in February may spell interest rate increase
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BL Premium reports that consumer inflation rose for the first time in four months in February, partly reflecting rising costs associated with load-shedding and potentially sealing the case for yet another interest rate hike when the SA Reserve Bank’s monetary policy committee meets next week.
Government raises wage offer to unions for 2023/24 to 7.5%
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Fin24 reports that the government has improved its wage offer to public servants to 7.5%, thus increasing the prospects of an early settlement to negotiations.
Morning roundup of labour news on Wednesday, 22 March 2023
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In our Wednesday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
Roundup on Monday, 20 March 2023 of weekend labour reports
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In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 17 March 2023.
Saftu not an EFF ally, says Vavi, despite the federation’s participation in Monday's shutdown
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News24 reports that according to Zwelinzima Vavi, Monday's shutdown belongs to the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) and other workers' unions, and not the EFF.
New round of public sector wage talks could be settled soon – if both sides budge by half a percent
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Fin24 reports that the new round of public sector wage negotiations could be settled as soon as this week – should both government and the majority of unions each move by 0.5% at the next meeting of the Public Sector Coordinating Bargaining Chamber (PSCBC).
Toyota to close Durban plant on Monday amid fears for safety of staff during EFF protest
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News24 reports that Toyota will on Monday close its Prospecton plant south of Durban – which only fully reopened late last year after suffering extensive damage in the devastating April floods in KwaZulu-Natal – because of the EFF's planned national shutdown.
EFF interdicted from disrupting business at Gauteng shopping centres
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City Press reports that the EFF has been interdicted from disrupting business at shopping centres in Gauteng during the national shutdown campaign set to take place on Monday.
EFF national shutdown: Putco buses to operate on Monday
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The Citizen reports that Putco has advised that its bus services will operate as usual despite a national shutdown planned for Monday.
Sacci says shutdown is clear abuse of political process, while Solidarity demands that employers remain open
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Business Report writes that the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Sacci) was warned that a national shutdown will not achieve any positive objective.