A meeting to resolve a continuing pay dispute and prevent a possible action at Eskom will take place this week, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Monday.
Three unions — the NUM, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity — together representing over 20 000 Eskom employees, have threatened industrial action should the parastatal fail to meet their 12% wage demand.
Eskom is offering 6%.
The meeting between the unions and Eskom was scheduled for Thursday, said NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka, but NUM leadership was still considering whether to attend.
”Leaders are considering Eskom’s wish as we speak,” he said.
Asked whether NUM members would lay down tools as reported, Seshoka said: ”Whether we press ahead will depend on that meeting. If leadership decides to go ahead … we will continue with mass action planned for Friday, to march to the DME [Department of Minerals and Energy] in Pretoria.”
Solidarity general secretary Dirk Hermann said the union would attend Thursday’s talks.
”We will definitely take part. There has been a lot of speculation in the media about a strike, but the fact is we are committed to a negotiated settlement,” he said.
Whether Solidarity will participate in mass action on Friday will depend on the outcome of Thursday’s meeting.
Hermann said it was a ”tense” time, as the parastatal had ”broken trust” when it attended a meeting last Wednesday without a mandate.
Eskom spokesperson Fani Zulu said last Wednesday’s meeting was not a negotiation, therefore it did not attend with a mandate.
”The meeting was not intended to be a negotiation, it was to discuss a way forward and it was then that Thursday’s meeting was decided upon,” he said.
Zulu said Eskom was working on contingency plans should workers lay down tools. The parastatal had not received confirmation of strike action from the unions.
”On the one side negotiations are continuing … we have not received confirmation of a strike from the unions. On the other side, parallel to that, based on what media are saying, we are putting together a contingency plan.”
The issue of a minimum-service agreement at Eskom is also unresolved, with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) still to decide whether it has jurisdiction to pronounce on the matter.
Eskom regards its employees as essential-service workers, barred from striking under the Labour Relations Act.
A minimum-service agreement — stipulating which Eskom workers could go on strike — had been in place until 2004. Zulu said that agreement was formally cancelled by the unions in 2004. He said the unions had added the negotiating of a new agreement to their current list of demands.
The matter could not be agreed upon and was referred to the CCMA. Eskom then argued that the commission did not have the jurisdiction to pronounce on the matter — a move described as ”delaying tactics” by Hermann. — Sapa