The Latest on Wage Negotiations Metal and Engineering Sector
 The Steel and Engineering Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA) counter wage offer of 4.1% tabled last week at the sector`s bargaining council was regarded as an insult to trade unions and was rejected, the National Union of Metal Workers (NUM) indicated. (See earlier article, "Wage Negotiations: Is a Winter of Discontent Looming?") Castro Ngobese, the NUM spokesman, said their demand remained at 20% increase and that they will not settle for less.
The sector is made up of approximately 9 000 employer employing more than 348 000 workers. Many of the employers fall into the defined small and medium enterprise categories. SEIFSA indicated that the survival of the sector was at stake with many enterprises being forced to implement short-time working arrangements and having to retrench employees. Last year, during July, the parties agreed to wage increases ranging from 7.1% to 8.1%.
The current four year agreement expires on 30 June 2011.
David Carson, Executive Director of SEIFSA , said the trade unions had reached a broad agreement on the establishment of an industry policy forum tasked with investigating the significant challenges facing the sector and in particular, how to create sustainable employment within the sector, and the promotion of a competitive manufacturing capability in the domestic and global markets. "A number of the union and employer demands have been allocated to this forum for further investigation and discussion”, he said.
Clement Chitja, head of the collective bargaining at the Chemical Energy Paper Printing Wood and Allied Workers Union said it was too early to comment on the (SEIFSA) offer. His union believed it was an opening offer and negotiations are still to continue.
Robert Mc Alpine, general secretary of the SA Equity Workers Association said that SEIFSA undertook to seek a fresh mandate from their membership and to revert to the unions during the next round of negotiations.
NUMSA spokesman, Ngobese claimed that the employers did not take into account equitable income redistribution at the point of production and that the share of the worker`s income had declined since 2007 due to the high cost of living. NUMSA did not rule out the possibility of strike action.
Clothing and Textile Sector
Wage negotiations in the Clothing and Textile sector ground to a halt when the employer parties and trade union failed to agree on a settlement. The employers told the bargaining council that they were not prepared to accept the demands of the trade union. The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers Union (SACTWU) is demanding increases ranging from 8% to 15%. SACTWU claim to represent more than a 100 000 workers in the sector. Before his appointment to President Jacob Zuma`s cabinet, Minister Ebrahim Patel was the general secretary of SACTWU.
When the trade union demand was rejected at a recent meeting in Durban, the Apparel Manufacturers of South Africa (AMSA) and Coastal Clothing Manufacturing Association were joined by the United Clothing and Textile Association (UCTA) which is currently seeking registration as an employer organisation.
Ahmed Paruk, the chairman of UCTA, said that the rejection of the trade union demands represented a victory for UCTA`s 300 noncompliant members and added that there was a need to revise things in the sector. Part of the trade unions demand include wage increases for workers in rural and urban areas. Last year, the parties agreed to 6.5 % and 14% wage increases for workers respectively in urban and rural areas.
Paruk said that the UCTA membership unhappiness also extended to the government`s phased-in compliance policy which requires non-compliant enterprises in the sector to be 70% compliant currently, and 90% compliant by the end of the year, and 100% compliant by the end of 2012.
This is an interesting development as it could mean that the noncompliant members of UCTA are now applying pressure to the other employer grouping in the sector as well as SACTWU and not least of all, government.
Local Government Sector
The conciliation meeting in the wage dispute between the South African Municipal Workers` Union (SAMWU) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) was postponed to 1 June in Pretoria. SAMWU spokesman Tahir Sema called for the re-opening of the negotiations when the average inflation rate fell below 5 % compared year on year.
Mining Sector
The 2011 wage negotiations in the gold and coal mining sectors have begun, with National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) demanding a basic wage increase of 14% as well as a demand of approximately 45% living -out allowance. Elize Strydom, the Chamber of Mines (COM) in a statement said that from the Chambers initial analysis that together, this constitutes about an increase of 25% which reflected a disregard for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) currently just above four percent.
NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka responded that the 25% increase mentioned by the Chamber was a “creation of their imagination....they are acting like mathematicians “adding that the NUM demands were reasonable. He claimed that although headline inflation might be around 4%, the workers would suffer more than others from the increases in food and fuel inflation.
Strydom said that for gold mining companies, labour costs ranges between 50% and 55% of their total costs.
She added that NUM`s demands would alienate investors and erode already tight margins and called for a need to find middle ground. Although NUM represented the largest number of workers in the Mining sector, the CoM was still awaiting the demands of the other recognised trade unions such as Solidarity and others.
Pieter Rautenbach |
