Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian

SA metal industry wage negotiations wrapped up

2 min read

The Steel, Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) on Thursday said it was pleased to announce that the negotiations with trade unions to finalise wage increases and conditions of employment in the industry, for the two-year period from July 1 2003, to June 30 2005, were concluded at a meeting held earlier in the day.

The signing of the agreement formally puts an end to a threatened strike by 230 000 workers in the steel and engineering industry.

National Union of Metal Workers’ of South Africa (Numsa) spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said the agreement was a victory and would benefit workers in relation to wages, which would be increased by 10,5% for the lowest paid workers and 9,5% for the highest paid workers.

According to the union this comes after a difficult three-month negotiation and dispute resolution process, which commenced on May 7.

All the industry trade unions, including Numsa, have accepted the final employer offer.

The key elements of the agreement between Seifsa and the trade unions are the following:

  • The introduction of a two-year wage agreement incorporating a wage model to determine next year’s wage increases.

  • Amendments to employment conditions next year are confined to wage increases only;

  • Wage increases ranging between 9,5% to 10,5%, backdated to July 1;

  • The introduction of one week’s severance pay for retrenched employees with between 6 to 12 month’s service;

  • The introduction of a notification and consultation procedure to be observed by companies when using workers supplied by a labour broker on scheduled occupations, for purposes other than short-term fluctuations in the workload;

  • An independent investigation is to be undertaken into the nature and extent of sick leave abuses in the industry;

  • Amendment of the family responsibility leave provisions of the main Agreement to include illness of a spouse as a reason for family responsibility leave and, permitting unused family responsibility leave to be accrued over a three year period to a maximum of nine days for use in the event of the death of a person mentioned in the clause;

    • Various other issues have been identified for further investigation and discussion. – I-Net Bridge