The United National Transport Union (Untu) has lashed out at Prasa’s bargaining style and what it terms “delaying tactics” after the passenger rail operator tabled a 3% wage offer to unions.
SA’s inflation rate edged up from March’s 2.7% to 2.8% in April. Untu and rival union the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) signed a multiterm wage agreement for increases of 6% each year over a three-year period with Transnet last week.
Prasa’s wage offer comes after Untu and Satawu declared a dispute in March, after Prasa’s management allegedly refused to formally table a wage offer.
This spurred the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to give Prasa 30 days to table a “just and fair” wage offer to its workforce, a deadline the unions said Prasa missed on May 10.
Satawu and Untu’s consolidated wage demands include a 15% across-the-board wage increase. The unions are also demanding a R3,000 housing subsidy, a standby allowance of R50 an hour, a night shift allowance of R10 an hour, a moratorium on retrenchments and a medical aid subsidy with the employer contributing 70%.
Untu spokesperson Atenkosi Plaatjie said: “After nine months of stalling, Prasa tabled a mere 3% increase on the total guaranteed package, with zero movement on any of the allowances. To make matters worse, Prasa’s opening position included a refusal to commit to a nonretrenchment clause, leaving job security in serious jeopardy.”
She said the “blatant disregard” for workers and job security “underlined the contempt” management held for blue-collar employees, “the very workers who have been instrumental in rebuilding Prasa from the ruins left by political interference and corruption”.
“Prasa continues to plead poverty as a justification for pressuring workers into voluntary severance packages while simultaneously advertising senior management posts and turning a blind eye to corrupt tenders that have gone unchecked for years.”
Plaatjie said the union made it clear to the CCMA commissioner that “we reject management’s disgraceful salary increase offer in the strongest possible terms. The facilitated 2025/26 salary negotiations are set to continue on June 25.”
Satawu spokesperson Amanda Tshemese said the 3% offer was an insult to workers. “We are not even going to consult our members on this matter. We are rejecting this offer,” she said, adding if parties did not find each other, “labour will be left with no option but to start the process of drafting picketing rules”.
During his third version of the budget speech in May, finance minister Enoch Godongwana announced that the financial allocation to Prasa for the upgrading of its automated signalling equipment had been cut by R7bn, as part of broader spending cuts triggered by a drop in projected revenue for the fiscal year.
Godongwana noted other proposed additions to spending allocated to Prasa over the medium term would be lowered, “in line with lower anticipated revenue”.
This followed the withdrawal of the one percentage point VAT increase that was initially proposed in the March 19 budget.
The allocations to signalling systems for Prasa have been revised down from R19.2bn in the March budget to R12.3bn in the May 21 budget. Over the medium term, however, Prasa has been allocated R63bn, which includes the R12.3bn and R18.2bn for the rolling stock fleet renewal programme.
Prasa had not reacted to a request for comment by the time of publication.
The parastatal incurred irregular expenditure of R3.8bn in 2022/23, earning a qualified audit opinion from the SA auditor-general for the period. From 2018/19 to 2021/22, the auditor-general issued a disclaimer on Prasa’s financial statements. A disclaimer signifies the accounts cannot be relied on and often suggests the company is in a serious financial state.
Prasa received government subsidies from the transport department amounting to R7.2bn for operations and R12.3bn for capital expenditure in 2022/23.
The passenger 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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