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- The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa announced that it would revise a wage offer in the sector.
- SEIFSA operations director Lucio Trentini said companies continued to struggle with stabilising businesses amid challenges.
- Unions and affiliated employer associations are expected to revert back to their constituencies and return to the negotiating table in two weeks.
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (SEIFSA) has announced that it will revise a wage offer in the sector in order to get a deal in its ongoing negotiations with organised labour.
The federation said in a statement released on Tuesday that it made an offer to five unions at the Metals and Engineering Bargaining Council on Monday. The offer is a 4.4% CPI increase across the board for one year, 0.5% plus CPI in the second and 1% plus CPI in the third year.
The negotiations impact wages at 1 223 companies in the steel and engineering industries and about 167 000 employees, according to the federation.
The unions at the negotiations are Solidarity, UASA, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA, the Metal and Electrical Workers of SA and the SA Equity Workers Association.
The federation includes 21 independent employer associations in the metals and engineering industries. SEIFSA operations director Lucio Trentini said companies continued to struggle with stabilising businesses amid challenges.
Trentini said in an attempt to slow down job losses, the agreement was formulated with increases on schedule rates as opposed to implementing increases on actual rates of pay.
"Linked to the offer is a special phase-in dispensation aimed at encouraging small and medium-sized employers who over the last ten years have elected not to be covered by the main agreement to come on board and participate on a 15-year phase in dispensation aimed at achieving parity with the main agreement rates while continuing to enjoy the remaining benefits associated with the agreement," the SEIFSA statement said.
According to SEIFSA, unions and affiliated employer associations are expected to revert back to their constituencies and return to the negotiating table in two weeks on 28 July.
