WATCH: Hundreds of Eskom employees protest in New Germany

Hundreds of disgruntled Eskom workers gathered outside the utility's New Germany site on Thursday as protests over the 0% increase offer continued across the country. Picture: Latoya Newman

Hundreds of disgruntled Eskom workers gathered outside the utility's New Germany site on Thursday as protests over the 0% increase offer continued across the country. Picture: Latoya Newman

Published Jun 14, 2018

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Durban - Hundreds of disgruntled Eskom workers gathered outside the utility's New Germany site on Thursday as protests over the 0% increase offer continued across the country.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) are leading the action in KwaZulu-Natal which began in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday.

On Thursday, hundreds more workers were expected to come in from Newcastle, Empangeni, Ladysmith and other parts of the province to join in protests in Durban.

Hundreds of disgruntled Eskom workers gathered outside the utility's New Germany site on Thursday as protests over the 0% increase offer continued across the country. Video: Latoya Newman

Phakama Kheswa, a shop steward with Numsa, said workers are giving Eskom until tomorrow to come back to them with a more favourable wage increase offer.

On Tuesday NUM and NUMSA rejected Eskom’s wage offer of a 0% increase.

In a statement, the unions said Eskom is in “serious financial trouble” with “huge debt” and that it had “wasted billions” through alleged mismanagement.

The unions said it was unfair for workers to have to bear the brunt of management's mistakes.

"If Eskom does not come back to us by tomorrow (Friday) with a better offer, we will go on a complete shutdown. We went to the bargaining table with 15%, we want them to come back to the table with a better offer," said Kheswa.

Daily News

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