Unions in the retail motor industry are frustrated over employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi’s “delay” in gazetting a collective wage agreement signed by parties, following protracted wage talks and a labour dispute that almost led to wide-scale industrial action.
The three-year wage deal was signed by the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), the Motor Industry Staff Association, the Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI), and Fuel Retailers Association (FRA) at the Motor Industry Bargaining Council (Mibco) in November.
Mibco is a platform where employers and unions agree on wage deals and other conditions of employment. The motor sector represents employees in components manufacturing companies, fuel stations, car dealerships, car cleaning companies, auto parts assembly and panel-beating workshops. The sector employs about 306,000 workers nationally, of which about 90,000 are Numsa members.
According to the wage agreement, workers will receive a 7.5% increase in the first year, followed by increases of 6% in the second and third years. However, the collective wage agreement only becomes binding on parties after Nxesi publishes it in the Government Gazette, and this has been the main point of frustration for unions.
Sonja Carstens, spokesperson of Misa, which has a membership of more than 58,000, said its members “are extremely frustrated” with the delay in the publication of the Government Gazette containing the Mibco agreement.
She said the department of employment and labour informed Misa that Nxesi “has 60 days to sign off on the Government Gazette once officials of the department are satisfied with the response of the bargaining council on all the clauses they requested clarity on”.
“Representatives from Mibco will be meeting officials from the department again this week to iron out some of the questions from the department. None of them [questions] are major concerns, but it is time-consuming,” Carstens said, adding the meeting was scheduled for Friday.
She said the delay was caused by Nxesi’s department’s “questioning this and that, and some of the wording in the main collective agreement. That’s the delay”.
Thembinkosi Mkalipi, chief director of labour relations at the department of employment and labour, said: “We received a draft agreement in December that we commented on; [Mibco] still have to submit a signed agreement, with a request for the minister to publish [it in the Government Gazette].”
Carstens said: “Employers are saying to employees ‘we are not going to give you the increase until we see the Mibco main agreement gazetted. It’s a wait-and-see [situation]. The delays are causing huge frustrations.
Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, spokesperson of Numsa, the biggest union in SA with more than 400,000 members, said: “Numsa is concerned the minister has not yet gazetted the agreement. Ruthless employers are using this [to] not pay the [wage] increase. We call on them to act with speed because every day that they delay means that workers are suffering.”
Numsa initially demanded an above-inflation increase of 12% from employers, citing the rising cost of living that has seen a sharp increase in food, fuel, transport and electricity costs.
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