As was the case in 2020, Covid-19 and the associated lockdown measures will to a large extent determine the state of labour relations in 2021.
The government’s labour relations challenges for 2021 are huge, and in addition to the pandemic, poor governance is the direct cause of the ongoing labour crisis that SAA, SABC, Denel, PetroSA and Land Bank employees are facing. Hopefully constructive and lasting solutions to the aforementioned problems can be found this year.
While a new public service wage agreement has to be negotiated in 2021 and unions are about to submit their wage demands, the current public sector wage increase dispute needs to be resolved first. This process has acquired new impetus now that public sector trade unions have resorted to the Constitutional Court. The threat of a strike looms, and the dispute could affect the upcoming local government elections.
The elections (if indeed held) will also mean political parties would exploit the labour disputes to canvass votes, while the EFF has taken it a step further with its newly established labour bureau, which will operate in workplaces to canvass votes.
In the past the labour relations climate created in the public sector spilt over to the private sector. Things might be different in 2021 because labour relations players are more sober over the current and future effect of Covid-19 on jobs. As a result, the private sector dealt with the review of salary agreements in 2020 in a relatively constructive way.
By way of illustration, despite having a binding agreement in place, a 0% increase was accepted by trade unions at Telkom, while Consol Glass managed to reach agreement to lower a proposed 6.75% increase to 3.5%. The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC), where the influential National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) assumes a leading role, agreed to no increases for 2020.
With regard to 2021, negotiations for a new multiyear agreement for the metal and engineering sector will kick off soon at the MEIBC. The negotiations will challenge Numsa in particular, since it has traditionally used this platform as a base to show its power. However, union action is expected to be subdued once again by Covid-19 and major job losses in the sector.
The National Bargaining Council for the Chemical Sector (NBCCI) faces a busy year of bargaining, with negotiations set to take place in the petroleum, chemical, pharmaceutical, fast-moving consumer goods and glass sectors under its auspices.
With the aviation sector hard-hit by Covid-19 and SAA and Comair in business rescue, the balance of power in this year’s negotiations at airlines such as FlySafair should be on the side of employers.
As a resilient sector, mining recovered fairly well in 2020, though the safe return of thousands of migrant workers from KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape in particular after the festive season is critical to avoid a repeat of the increase in Covid-19 cases the sector experienced in 2020. Avoiding a drastic Covid-19 resurgence will have a positive effect on salary negotiations in the coal and gold sectors that are due to take place from June.
Besides challenging wage negotiations, retrenchments are expected to be the main focus of labour relations in 2021. Retrenchment processes initiated in 2020 at companies such as ArcelorMittal, BCX, Anglo American coal mines and Sasol will continue in 2021. With the end of the pandemic not yet in sight, retrenchments will in general be on the increase.
Though brutal, retrenchments can still be dealt with in a humane way. For example, Sasol is handling its retrenchment process in a manner that is more acceptable to labour. This after Sasol management did not receive any increases in 2020 and a formal retrenchment process was embarked upon. Sasol’s approach differs markedly from that of the mining sector. The former process is protracted and phased by intention, giving affected employees more time to find alternative jobs and allowing them to be employed for longer.
Several companies, including Mediclinic, Senwes and Telkom, offered employees voluntary severance packages in 2020, which could be a precursor to further retrenchments in 2021. With Eskom also offering voluntary severance packages, there is a concern that mainly skilled employees will apply and scarce skills could be lost in the process — especially after no salary increases were granted to employees at management level.
As if trade unions are not facing enough challenges, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the SA Municipal Workers’ Union will start the year by having to elect new leaders after the recent sad passing of both prominent unions’ general secretaries. The NUM in particular will have to reflect deeply on a new leader given the territorial battle raging between the NUM and rival the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu). The NUM will elect an acting general secretary soon, and a new general secretary will be elected at the union’s national congress in 2022.
As was the case in 2020, this year will be challenging from a labour relations perspective, with Covid-19 set to be the prominent stakeholder at the negotiating table. It will require cool heads to overcome challenges.
• Gideon du Plessis is the general secretary of Solidarity.
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