Unions have rejected Eskom’s wage increase offer of 1.5%, saying the proposal will only be considered if it is in addition to the 3.2% inflation rate.
The debt-laden power utility and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) — which represents the majority of Eskom’s 46,000-strong workforce — the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and Solidarity, met at the bargaining forum on Monday for a second round of wage negotiations ending on Thursday.
“Eskom has today [Monday] tabled a 1.5% wage increase offer at the bargaining forum, conditional on the labour representatives accepting amendments to some of the conditions of service. These changes include: transfer benefits, overtime payment rates and travel time. Wage talks are ongoing,” Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said in a statement.
Numsa energy sector co-ordinator Vuyo Bikitsha said: “We indicated to Eskom management and the negotiators that the 1.5% is an offer to talk to if it’s in addition to the CPI [consumer price index]. If it’s from a zero base we reject it, that’s what we said.”
Bikitsha said they will not entertain management’s proposals to change conditions of employment. “Downward variation won’t happen. The conditions of employment can't be reduced or decreased, we can only build up from those conditions. We told management that they are crazy,” he said. “We will hear what they have to say on Tuesday.”
Solidarity deputy general secretary Helgard Cronje said: “We have also rejected the offer because the 1.5% is conditional. They are saying it’s only on the table if employees agree to a downward variation of conditions of employment. So this means employees will be funding the 1.5% increase through downward variation.”
NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu said they also rejected the Eskom offer, saying: “This offer is below inflation. Any wage offer below inflation is not different from a zero percent increase.”
Numsa and NUM are demanding a one-year, 15% wage increase, and Solidarity a 9% wage increase, which is above the 3.2% inflation rate recorded in March and higher than the 4.3% average the Reserve Bank expects for 2021.
However, during the first round of talks recently, Eskom — one of many state-owned entities (SOEs) that have been hollowed out by years of corruption and malfeasance linked to state capture — dismissed most of the unions’ demands and tabled a host of proposals it wants the unions to agree to before tabling an offer.
Among other proposals, Eskom said that overtime hours worked be paid in the next payroll cycle after being processed and approved, instead of the current practice in which workers bank them for a year before cashing them in.
The utility also proposed that a fixed rate be implemented for any overtime worked on Sundays and public holidays, instead of paying double the applicable rate of pay. Eskom also proposed not to pay any transfer benefits if the transfer is initiated by an employee.
Eskom pays the third-highest average salary in SA — R785,557 a year — but is buckling under a R480bn debt pile and depends on government bailouts to keep the lights on and the economy functioning.
Ratings agencies have described Eskom as the single biggest risk to the SA economy, which the SA Reserve Bank expects to expand 3.8% in 2021.
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