Johannesburg - The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (Numsa) withdrew its urgent application against the National Employers Association of South Africa (Neasa) on Tuesday, says the emloyer body.
On Monday Numsa lodged an urgent application in the Labour Court to declare the lock-out by members of Neasa invalid.
The application was supposed to be heard on Tuesday morning. However, according to Neasa, Numsa announced that it was to withdrew its urgent application. Costs for the application were awarded against Numsa.
Last week Neasa announced that its members would engage in a lock-out of union members who participated in the recent metal industry strike.
The reason for the lock-out is because Neasa claims its demands have not been considered during the recent industry negotiations.
Because of this, Neasa has also refused to sign the recent settlement agreement that was reached between the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa), Numsa and five other unions.
Neasa again said on Tuesday that the lock-out will continue until Neasa's demands have been sufficiently dealt with.
Neasa represents 3 000 members in the metal industry alone, the majority of them small and medium enterprises. These members represent about 70 000 workers.