By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Labour court has granted ArcelorMittal, Africa’s largest steel producer an interim order prohibiting striking National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) workers from striking for above-inflation wages.
This comes after Numsa, the country’s largest union with more than 400,000 members, downed tools on Wednesday.
Wage negotiations between African steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa (Amsa) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) have deadlocked.
ArcelorMittal SA is the largest steel producer on the continent, supplying 60% of the steel used in South Africa. It also exports steel to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
Numsa said in a statement that at the heart of the dispute was ArcelorMittal’s “refusal” to make a “meaningful offer” to settle in the deadlocked negotiations.
“The bosses have tabled a final offer of only 5% across the board. They are also offering workers 2% of their salaries in cash as a monthly amount. We reject this proposal. What is a 5% increase for the lowest-paid worker who earns approximately R7 000? It is not much at all,” the statement read.
The union said ArcelorMittal employees have not seen “meaningful” wage increases in two years, with a 2% increase “imposed” on them in 2021. The union dismissed the company’s claim that ArcelorMittal employees have the best pay scale in the steel sector.
“This is simply not true! Workers at ArcelorMittal SA are exploited and paid very low salaries, considering the size of the organisation. Our members are struggling to make ends meet whilst the greedy bosses rake in obscene profits,” the Numsa statement said.
The union is demanding a 10% increase across the board, housing allowance, for ArcelorMittal to contribute 80% towards employees’ medical aid premiums, the scrapping of labour brokers and the insourcing of temporary workers.