Steel workers have rejected a 4,3% wage increase offered by employers, their trade union said on Friday.
Dumisa Ntuli, a spokesperson for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), said the union and the Steel Engineering Industry Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) failed to reach an agreement on Thursday.
”The union rejected the 4,3% miserable wage offer after Seifsa rejected all core Numsa demands,” said Ntuli.
Seifsa had rejected Numsa’s demand for a 12% increase for the lowest-paid workers and 11% for the highest-paid.
This followed two days of wage negotiations.
Numsa’s other demands were:
- four weeks’ severance pay for every completed year of service;
- severance pay should be extended to contract workers;
- grades should be linked to the National Qualifications Framework;
- leave pay should be increased to 20 days after a year of service; and
- employers must adhere to the HIV/Aids code of good practice.
”To make our dissatisfaction on the low wage increases known, Numsa workers will now join Cosatu’s [Congress of South African Trade Unions] protest action this month,” Ntuli said.
As part of the Cosatu action, Numsa will hand over a separate memorandum to all Seifsa offices on June 27.
The union will also hold lunch-hour protest action in all steel and engineering companies until June 27.
Seifsa’s director of industrial relations, David Carson, said the employers’ body made a reasonable offer.
”We made an offer, which Numsa rejected. According to us, the offer of 4,3% was reasonable,” said Carson. ”It’s up to Numsa whether they want to strike. From our side, we are doing everything we can to secure an agreement before the end of May.”
Carson said a committee has been formed, made up of members of Seifsa and Numsa, to explore options to allow the parties to reach an agreement within the next few weeks. — Sapa