Johannesburg - The Motor Industry Staff Association (Misa) has refused to be part of the wage settlement agreement signed by the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) for the retail motor industry.
The National Employers’ Association of South Africa has also not signed the agreement, because it was still busy with a process to get a mandate from its members.
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It is unlikely this will delay or stop labour minister Mildred Oliphant from publishing the settlement agreement and extending it to the entire retail motor industry in terms of the Labour Relations Act. Numsa is the majority union, RMI the majority employer body at the Motor Industry Bargaining Council (Mibco).
The previous Mibco agreement expired on August 31, but the implementation of the new agreement cannot by law be backdated and is only expected to become effective from early next year.
Tom Mkhwanazi, the general secretary of the Mibco, said on Friday an agreement for the retail motor industry was now in place, because the majority of employers and unions that were parties to Mibco had reached agreement and signed the agreement.
“The parties that have not signed will at this stage not affect the standing agreement and they should represent themselves with regards to their reasons for not signing,” he said.
Hermann Kostens, the chief executive responsible for strategy and development at Misa, confirmed that it had not and would not be signing the agreement as a form of protest.
Kostens said Misa had more than 40 000 members, the majority of whom worked in National Automobile Dealer Association vehicle dealerships.
He said in terms of the settlement agreement signed by Numsa and the RMI at Mibco about 10 days ago, Misa members would receive a 7 percent increase on minimum wages in each year of the three-year agreement.
But Kostens said 82 percent of Misa’s members were paid wages above the current minimum and would therefore not get any wage increase in terms of the agreement.
No benefit
Kostens said he could not say for certain Misa members would not get a wage increase, but if they did, it would be at the discretion of the dealer principal of the dealership at which they worked.
“There is no benefit to our members to sign the agreement. If we do sign, we need to tell our members why we signed.
“We don’t have that kind of mandate and can’t sign it. It’s of no benefit to our members,” he said.
Kostens said the labour minister had a discretion on whether or not to extend the agreement to the entire industry, but expressed doubt the minister would use this discretion because Misa had not signed the agreement.
Jakkie Olivier, the chief executive of the RMI, which represents 19 000 businesses that collectively employ 300 000 people, said it was regrettable that not all the parties to Mibco had signed the settlement agreement. “It’s not ideal if all parties have not signed the settlement agreement. It creates tension and relationship issues,” he said.
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