South Africa is headed for a national bus strike on Wednesday following a breakdown in wage talks, according to the South African Bus Employers’ Association (SABEA).
”Such strike action has the potential of seriously disrupting bus services and leaving many thousands of commuters without public transport,” SABEA president Barry Gie said in a statement on Monday.
”The planned industrial action, particularly when the parties are so close to concluding an agreement, is not in the best interests of any of the parties,” he said.
Nor was it in the interests of the commuting public or the country.
SABEA’s members include all the large privately operated bus companies in the major metropolitan areas.
Gie said wage negotiations began in January, and on February 22 the three unions involved in the talks declared a dispute.
On March 14 the unions ”prematurely” called a halt to mediation, at a point where they were demanding an across-the-board 9% increase and employers were offering 7%.
There was also a dispute over retrenchment provisions, and a union demand to negotiate certain salary adjustments at company level.
”SABEA has now been served with formal notice that labour will commence strike action at 000h01 on the March 28,” he said.
”This is the fifth consecutive year that labour has declared a dispute during national wage negotiations and threatened strike action.”
SABEA believed an agreement was ”not beyond the reach of the parties”. — Sapa