The South African Local Government Association (Salga) has made a ”certain improvement” to its previous wage offer to striking municipal workers, their union said on Tuesday.
”It makes provision for an across-the-board increase of 6% … with an additional 1,5% adjustment, effective from February 1 2006, to the wages of all workers earning below R4 792 per month,” South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) spokesperson Roger Ronnie said in a statement.
The new offer, made by a South African Local Government Bargaining Council mediator, also proposes an adjustment of consumer price inflation plus 1% in years two and three.
The offer includes a minimum wage of R3 000 in year three.
The parties have been given until August 18 to accept or reject the proposal.
The nationwide municipal workers’ strike will continue while the union considers the offer, Ronnie said.
He said Samwu hopes to make an announcement regarding the offer by the weekend.
Ten protesters were injured, two seriously, in Germiston and more than 40 arrested in Pinetown in clashes between police and protesting municipal workers on Monday.
Salga has put in place a 6% wage increase against the unions’ demands of a R3 000 guaranteed minimum wage or an 8% or R350 increase, whichever is the greatest. — Sapa