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Johannesburg - Apparent divisions within the employer camp in the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council are set to complicate a strike already marred by widespread violence, reported City Press on Sunday.
Ratings agency Moody’s issued a short report warning that the metal and engineering strike will “prolong South Africa’s weak growth cycle”, in effect picking up where the platinum strike left off.
When the major parties do settle, odds are the deal will be challenged.
Three smaller employer groups claimed they had already reached a wage agreement for the plastics subsector – and they will not be bound by the main agreement the strike revolves around.
The strike, led by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), is unprotected as far as their members’ factories are concerned.
This is the latest twist in an old battle by smaller employers to undermine the private sector’s largest wage-setting institution, which they say saddles them with unaffordable wages set by bigger employers.
There are seven employer federations and six unions at the table. The size of the Steel and Engineering Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) and Numsa, however, means that they mostly determine the outcomes.
Seifsa has already improved its prestrike offer far above the alleged deal in the plastics sector’s flat 8% increase.
It was offering the lowest job level (H) 10%, 9% and 8% for 2014 through to 2016.
For the highest “A” job level, it is offering 8% followed by 7% for two years.
A union official with knowledge of the talks told City Press they expected 10% to be more or less what Numsa is really aiming at.
The main issue now seems to be Numsa’s demand for a sectorwide ban on using either labour brokers or the new youth wage subsidy.
Seifsa’s CEO, Kaizer Nyatsumba, has labelled these “political” demands that the federation refuses to address in wage talks.
There was no way Seifsa would accede to a labour broker ban, he said. “You cannot call on business to not take advantage of a thing they can legally do.”
Read the full story on City Press.
Ratings agency Moody’s issued a short report warning that the metal and engineering strike will “prolong South Africa’s weak growth cycle”, in effect picking up where the platinum strike left off.
When the major parties do settle, odds are the deal will be challenged.
Three smaller employer groups claimed they had already reached a wage agreement for the plastics subsector – and they will not be bound by the main agreement the strike revolves around.
The strike, led by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), is unprotected as far as their members’ factories are concerned.
This is the latest twist in an old battle by smaller employers to undermine the private sector’s largest wage-setting institution, which they say saddles them with unaffordable wages set by bigger employers.
There are seven employer federations and six unions at the table. The size of the Steel and Engineering Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) and Numsa, however, means that they mostly determine the outcomes.
Seifsa has already improved its prestrike offer far above the alleged deal in the plastics sector’s flat 8% increase.
It was offering the lowest job level (H) 10%, 9% and 8% for 2014 through to 2016.
For the highest “A” job level, it is offering 8% followed by 7% for two years.
A union official with knowledge of the talks told City Press they expected 10% to be more or less what Numsa is really aiming at.
The main issue now seems to be Numsa’s demand for a sectorwide ban on using either labour brokers or the new youth wage subsidy.
Seifsa’s CEO, Kaizer Nyatsumba, has labelled these “political” demands that the federation refuses to address in wage talks.
There was no way Seifsa would accede to a labour broker ban, he said. “You cannot call on business to not take advantage of a thing they can legally do.”
Read the full story on City Press.
