BDLive reports that, in the same week Eskom told employees it would not pay bonuses, it promised ex gratia payments to some of them.
Senior managers and most professional staff are to be excluded from the ex gratia scheme, in a move that seems designed to placate the majority of Eskom’s workforce. Acting CEO Brian Molefe made the ex gratia payment promise in a rowdy meeting at the company’s headquarters on Friday, after being confronted by angry workers who demanded it "now". The workers argued that they were not responsible for many of the failures at the utility. Eskom executives met representatives of trade union Solidarity and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) on Monday to discuss the ex gratia payments for workers who belong to bargaining units. They are to meet the majority union, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), on Tuesday. Head of the energy sector at Solidarity Deon Reyneke confirmed that a discussion on the ex gratia payments took place, but said payment details were not known. Sources say the ex gratia payments have not yet been considered by the board. In a statement to employees earlier last week, Molefe broke the news that Eskom would not be paying bonuses this year as it had failed to meet key performance targets in the year ended March.
- Read this report by Sikonathi Mantshantsha in full at BDLive
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