Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) group CEO Hishaam Emeran is on Tuesday expected to meet with the two largest unions at the rail operator after they lodged a dispute at the CCMA over their demands for wage increases of 15%.
The United National Transport Union (Untu) and SA Transport & Allied Workers Union (Satawu) declared a dispute at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) weeks ago and threatened industrial action after Prasa “refused” to formally respond to demands for wage increases five times the rate of inflation.
Satawu and Untu’s consolidated wage demands include a 15% across-the-board wage increase for 2025/26. Inflation is hovering at about 3%.
The unions are also demanding a R3,000 housing subsidy, R50 per hour standby allowance, R10 per hour night shift allowance, a moratorium on retrenchments and a medical aid subsidy with the employer contributing 70%, among others.
A strike could leave millions of commuters reliant on trains for transportation in limbo and stall the recovery programme of the past year that saw Prasa reopening several rail lines in Gauteng and Western Cape that were subjected to severe damage, theft and vandalism during the Covid-19 lockdown.
The two unions declared a dispute with the CCMA after talks — which began early this year — stalled for the third time at Prasa’s Umjantshi House headquarters in Joburg late in March.
On Monday, Untu national spokesperson Atenkosi Plaatjie said labour was scheduled to meet Emeran on Tuesday to try to find common ground. However, she said this would not stall the hearing of their dispute at the CCMA on Thursday.
Satawu spokesperson Amanda Tshemese said the Cosatu affiliate would attend the meeting with the Prasa CEO. Prasa has yet to respond to questions from Business Day sent on March 25.
Prasa spent R3.8bn on irregular expenditure in 2022/23, earning itself a qualified audit opinion during the period under review.
From 2018/19 to 2021/2022 the auditor-general issued a disclaimer on the parastatal’s financial statements. A disclaimer signifies that the company’s accounts cannot be relied on and often suggests the company is in a serious financial state.
Prasa received government subsidies from the department of transport amounting to R7.2bn for operations and R12.3bn for capital expenditure in 2022/23.
The rail operator generated revenue of R119m from fares, operating lease rental income of R620m, other income of R181m and interest received of R1.7bn.
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