The Department of Labour had made a proposal to end the wage strike in the metals and engineering sector, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) said yesterday.
“This is a proposal from the Department of Labour. Employers are meeting today [Monday] to consider it. We expect the proposal to be formally tabled on Tuesday, at a [bargaining] council meeting between the unions and the employers,” Andrew Chirwa, the president of Numsa, said.
The Department of Labour and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration are facilitating the talks after negotiations between Numsa and the employer body, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa), deadlocked.
Seifsa withdrew its latest conditional wage offer last week, after Numsa rejected it.
The conditional final offer was a 10 percent wage increase this year, 9.5 percent next year and 9 percent in 2016.
Chirwa said once the new wage proposal had been formally tabled the union would consult its members for a mandate to accept or reject the offer. He described the proposed offer as not being too far from the union’s wage demand.
More than 200 000 Numsa members in the metal and engineering sector downed tools on July 1, demanding a salary increase of 12 percent, which was down from their pre-strike demand of 15 percent. They also demanded a R1 000 a month housing allowance, and a total ban on labour brokers.
The union announced on July 13 that it had lowered its wage demand to 10 percent for a one-year settlement.
Chirwa confirmed there was a proposal but declined to give details.
The National Employers’ Association of SA (Neasa), representing the interests of smaller businesses, said it rejected the proposed settlement.
Neasa chief executive Gerhard Papenfus said the ministerial team met with all parties on Saturday to try and broker a deal to end the strike, which enters its fourth week today.
“The ministerial team of the Department of Labour has tabled a settlement proposal that is further out of reach of small, medium and micro enterprises.
“What is disappointing is that the ministerial team proposed a settlement arrangement which may satisfy the trade unions but will accelerate job losses.”
He said a short-sighted settlement would end the strike but would lead to long-term hardship across the board and would eventually bring about socio-economic instability.
“We urge the unions to look beyond the short-term interests of their members and to act in the long-term interests of the industry, which will bring about more sustainable benefits for everybody.”
He said the new proposal included a three-year agreement with an increase of 8 percent for workers on wage rate A in years one and two, a 10 percent increase for wage rates F, G and H for year one, a 10 percent increase in year two for wage rates G and H, an 8 percent increase for wage rate A in year three and 10 percent for wage rate H in year three.
Neasa has offered an 8 percent wage hike, subject to an agreement on reducing the entry-level wage.
Solidarity’s industry head of the metals and engineering sector, Marius Croucamp, said the new consolidated wage proposal essentially came from the unions and had been presented to the employers at the metal and engineering industry bargaining council (MEIBC).
“The Department of Labour’s proposal differs from that of organised labour in that workers on wage rate A will receive a 7.5 percent increase in year two and 7 percent in year three as per the department’s proposal. This differs from the 8 percent organised labour proposed for these particular years of the agreement.”
Croucamp added that the parties were drawing closer to reaching an agreement.
“The most significant difficulty in the negotiating process at this stage is that the employers are still divided with regard to their mandate. Organised labour called on the employers in the MEIBC to settle the dispute in good faith,” he said.