Cape Town - Wage negotiating during the course of this year will start above inflation, vowed the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa).
Fedusa is one of four trade union federations in the country with 18 affiliates from various sectors.
In principle, negotiations should start above the current CPI, that is at 6.4% plus an adjustment rate of about 2% to 3% "to cushion the negative effects of the ever increasing food and transport inflation that our members have to contend with on a regular basis”, said Fedusa general secretary Dennis George.
“Otherwise inflation will eat away at workers’ wages and they will lose their purchasing power. So trade unions should start negotiating for a living wage rather than a minimum wage which will not lift them out of poverty”.
READ: Minimum wage first step to living wage - Ramaphosa
The trade union federation held its annual two-day leadership and collective bargaining conference in Benoni last week. It said discussions were mainly aimed at equipping and preparing negotiating teams for the upcoming round of substantive wage negotiations.
The conference sentiments followed a review of the statistics of 2016 settlement trends across all economic sectors with delegates noting that wage settlements, which ranged from 6.0% to 10% in multi-year agreements, had resulted in the labour environment becoming relatively peaceful with fewer wage related strikes compared to previous years.
“Our approach was informed by assessing and evaluating the outcomes of the last year’s wage campaigns and then agreeing on this year’s collective bargaining plan which will revolve around the Decent Work and Decent Life for All agenda as our central theme and strategy,” said George.
“We believe that the Decent Work and Decent Life for All agenda will also provide an opportunity for our leaders to deeply and honestly reflect on the current state of the organisation and to strategise on new approaches to strengthen the Federation.”