The countrywide strike of airport baggage handlers, which started on December 18, has been resolved, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Thursday.
”The Congress of South African Trade Unions welcomes the resolution of the long dispute between members of its affiliate, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union and Equity Aviation Services,” said spokesperson Patrick Craven.
Herman Fleischman, spokesperson for Equity, said: ”The agreement was signed this morning … We want to say thank you to the union for their cooperativeness in assisting us reaching this agreement.”
Craven said workers will get a 12% wage increase and a 2% performance incentive.
All workers dismissed during the strike will be reinstated, and the parties agreed to a relationship counselling exercise ”to improve the industrial relations and workplace environment”.
One of the sticking points during negotiations, the increase to a 45-hour working week, was also agreed upon.
Fleischman said: ”We got our 45-hour work week but there was compromise on both sides. This was after really stringent negotiations this week.”
He said the company will now be ”in line to become competitive and more commercially secure in the future, which will benefit the staff”.
Craven said: ”Cosatu believes however that this dispute could and should have been resolved much earlier, but for the previous intransigence of the employer.
”We hope that in any future disputes, the many forums available for the resolution of disputes will be used from the outset, so that such long and painful conflicts can be avoided.”
Cosatu thanked ”all the other trade unions, government and business leaders and others, who helped to bring the parties together so that they could reach a settlement which was acceptable to both parties”. — Sapa