By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A wage increase agreement has been reached to end the three-week nationwide strike in the engineering sector.
The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) on Thursday said it had reached a “landmark” wage agreement with employers to end the strike.
The employers’ association said the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) accepted its final 6% wage offer that the union had initially rejected because it was based on minimums, and not on the actual rates of pay.
Numsa members have been protesting since 5 October after reaching an impasse with employers’ associations.
The metalworkers’ union on Wednesday held a special meeting of its national executive committee (NEC) to deliberate on the 6% wage offer. The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Wednesday morning also mediated between parties in an attempt to assist with resolving the strike.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola on Thursday said the union would hold a press conference to unpack the decision of the special NEC meeting on whether to accept employers’ wage offer.
“The SNEC [special NEC] deliberated on the final offer which was made by Seifsa which is a 6% wage increase based on the minimum rate of pay.
“We will outline what the final decision is on the offer and on the future of the strike at the press conference,” Hlubi-Majola said in a press alert.
The briefing will be held at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni at 4pm. Seifsa will also hold a media briefing at 2pm.
However just hours after announcing it had reached a wage agreement with striking sector workers, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) postponed a scheduled briefing on the matter.
Seifsa said it would be postponed and a new date and time would be announced.
The strike has entered its third week. According to Seifsa, in its first week alone, the strike cost R100 million in lost wages. The steel federation has also warned that a protracted strike could be worse than the 2014 strike which cost the economy R6 billion.