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Unions mull Eskom’s improved wage offer

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Power cables from Eskom are seen running through the morning mist in Johannesburg. Picture: kim Ludbrook/EPA
Power cables from Eskom are seen running through the morning mist in Johannesburg. Picture: kim Ludbrook/EPA

South Africans fearing load shedding will have to wait anxiously as trade unions take some time off to consider Eskom’s latest wage offer.

There are indications that the power utility’s latest offer was an improvement and more “in line” with the unions’ mandate.

The National Union of Mineworkers (Num), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity are banding together to try and squeeze the best possible salary increase out of Eskom.

The wage talks got off to a rocky start after the power utility offered employees “a zero percent increase”.

The stalling, backtracking and holding back has already cost the cash-strapped state-owned entity R50 billion in damages, said Numsa’s spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.

The unions’ wage proposal would cost the power utility R1.2 billion.

“Surely if Eskom was determined to settle the strike it would simply accept the proposal which has been made by the unions so it can resolve the dispute,” said Hlubi-Majola.

Last week the unions collectively issued an all-inclusive proposal to Eskom management which included five key issues, one of which was a guarantee that there would be no retrenchments.

The unions believe that Eskom can reduce cost drivers while also generating enough money for wage increases and guaranteeing the utility’s long term sustainability.

The unions unanimously issued the following demands to Eskom: 9% wage increase for 2018, 8.6% increase for 2019 and 8.5% increase for 2020.

Eskom responded on Wednesday with a 5% wage hike increase, inflation plus 0.6% and inflation plus 0.7% increase for 2018, 2019 and 2020 respectively.

The unions rejected Eskom’s offer, expressing their dissatisfaction with the lack of involvement from Eskom’s executives in the negotiations and felt they were not being taken seriously.

“Once again we have called on Eskom to take this process seriously, we have made major concessions and compromised on our positions when you consider the individual demands of the unions since these talks started.”

On Thursday morning the unions received a new offer, which they would take back to their members.

“The offer is in line with our mandate and an improvement on the 4.7% tabled. We will meet with Eskom again next week,” said Tommy Wedderspoon, sector coordinator of Solidarity.

Eskom was hopeful that the trade unions would come to an agreement by the end of Friday.

“We are still hopeful that a mutually exclusive agreement can be met,” said Eskom representative Dikatso Mothae.

Numsa revealed that the revised offer from Eskom was as follows: “6.2% increase in 2018, 6% increase in 2019 and 6% increase in 2020. If CPI is greater the increase will be determined based on inflation but will not be less than 6%.”

Trade unions believed that they had done everything possible to push Eskom for an offer that could wrap up this round of negotiations.

“As unions collectively we took a conscious decision that we will not rush to respond. We are taking this to our members and they must debate this new offer and give us a direction on the way forward. We will have meetings next week and give the response next week Friday,” Irvin Jim, Numsa’s general secretary, said.

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