By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) has committed to pursue an indefinite nationwide strike if Massmart fails to improve a current wage increase offer.
Saccawu – representing about 85% of staff at Makro – began a limited-duration strike at 22 stores on Wednesday (26 October) over the wage disputes, which is expected to end at 06h00 on Saturday.
Massmart has offered Makro employees a 4.5% increase, which translates to a R300 monthly increase, while the union is demanding a R900 increase across the board, or 12%, whichever is greater. The association also demands the following:
- A minimum wage increase to R8,000 per month;
- Increase in working hours from 160 hours to 195 per month;
- A hike in sales commissions from 10% to 20%;
- A 13th cheque in December for all employees; and
- Uniform allowance of R100.
Saccawu noted that it would be willing to compromise and accept an increase close to the inflation rate of 7% if Massmart is ready to come to the table with a decent offer.
It added that 4.5% is simply not enough during the economic hardship experienced by its workers and that worker’s pay of “R5,000 gets wiped out” by rising transport and food costs and other basic necessities.
Massmart said that the union’s demands are unrealistic, and the deadlock in negotiations has been ongoing for months, which prompted the company to put strike contingency plans in place before it commenced.
“The union demands, including a 12% wage increase and increasing sales commission from 10% to 20%, are intuitively unrealistic. We have been negotiating with the union for eight months, during which time there has been little progress on their demands, “Massmart said.
“Makro has implemented strike contingency plans, which include deploying temporary employees who have been trained in our store processes – meaning we anticipate little to no disruptions to normal store trading at its stores,” it added.
Massmart noted that this decision by the union had been taken unilaterally in the absence of their conducting strike ballots across the Makro store base – adding that this approach shows that the union has been negotiating in bad faith.