With the second round of wage talks set to resume this week, employers in the motor sector have tabled multiterm inflation-based increases for hundreds of thousands of workers falling under the Motor Industries Bargaining Council (Mibco).
The bargaining council covers more than 300,000 workers. Employer organisations that are part of the Mibco include the Fuel Retailers Association (FRA) and the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI).
The motor sector comprises employees in component manufacturing companies, fuel stations, car dealerships, tyre shops, aftermarket sales, glass-fitment centres, car cleaning, car parts assembly and panel-beating workshops. It employs about 306,000 workers nationally, of whom about 90,000 are Numsa members.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said: “The employers are offering multiyear agreements. RMI wants a five-year agreement and FRA is offering a three-year agreement. Numsa has already rejected the five-year agreement. We think five years is too long.”
Hlubi-Majola said a lot could happen in five years and such a deal would not benefit workers.
“We are willing to consider three years. Both employer [organisations] are offering CPI [consumer price inflation],” she said. Inflation is hovering around 3%.
Motor Industry Staff Association (Misa) spokesperson Sonja Carstens said the Mibco wage negotiations would resume on May 7.
Besides the 10% across-the-board wage demands, Numsa wants medical aid/insurance for all workers, night shift allowances, transport allowances and closing the wage gap.
Hlubi-Majola has previously said an inflation-based increase is “unrealistic because our members simply cannot afford to survive on it”.
“Our demands are informed by the reality of the negative impact of the cost of living. The facts are that the majority of black and African workers continue to earn the lowest wages.”
Numsa members struggle to survive: “They spend the bulk of their wages on food, rent, electricity and transport to and from work. This has been confirmed by research by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, which found that workers spend as much as 57% of their wages on transport and electricity, while underspending on food.”
The current three-year wage agreement signed in November 2022, in which workers received a 7.5% increase in the first year, followed by increases of 6% in the second and third, ends on August 31.
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