Business Report writes that the jury is out on whether the metal and engineering industries can avert labour unrest after the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) blamed employers for provoking its members to strike.
In a scathing statement on Friday, Numsa said employers had failed to meet its demand for a double digit wage increase during the second day of wage talks held on Thursday. “Based on this proposal, we are convinced that employers are indeed provoking a deadlock in order to justify a strike. Employers clearly do not want industrial peace in the engineering sector, they want it to be unstable,” Numsa said. The union said employers had offered a three-year agreement, when it had demanded a two-year agreement. Moreover, they had proposed a 5.3% wage increase across the board for the first year of the agreement, based on the minimum rate, and not the actual rate that workers earned. By contrast, Numsa had demanded a 15% wage increase across the board, based on actual rates and not on minimum rates. The next meeting between Numsa and employers will be on this Thursday.
- Read this report by Dineo Faku in full at Business Report
- Read Numsa’s press statement at Politicsweb
