Strike incidents increased from 99 in 2012 to 114 last year, a rise of 15.2 percent, with a total loss of R6.7 billion in wages compared with R6.6bn in 2012, Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant said on Friday.
This year saw a five-month strike by 70 000 workers in the platinum sector, followed by a month-long strike by 220 000 members of the National Union of Metalworkers of SA. These stayaways will cause a hefty rise in strike figures.
Oliphant was speaking at the launch of the annual Industrial Action Report 2013 by the Department of Labour. She said while an increase in the number of strikes had been recorded, the working days lost last year fell by 44.2 percent.
She voiced concern at the logic of pursuing strike action to the point where it damaged workers’ interests. “Either way, South Africa needs to find a solution for the seemingly failing bargaining structure.”
The report says in terms of the total number of work stoppages, 2013 was a more unstable year for the labour market than the previous four years.
To reduce incidents over wage demands, Oliphant said “possibilities of increasing minimum wages to address poverty and inequality and to expand provision for retirement savings for low income workers” would come into sharp focus this year.
One of the factors that has a direct impact on the number of days lost is the number of employees involved in stoppages. “The number increased from 241 391 in 2012 to 297 193 in 2013, a rise of 21.3 percent. The majority of employees involved (68.9 percent) in the work stoppages in 2013 were in the mining industry. Other sectors that had a noticeable contribution to the total number of employees involved were: the community services (7.6 percent); transport (7.5 percent); and manufacturing (7.3 percent) sectors.”