By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Embattled power utility Eskom, which is struggling to provide energy to power one of Africa’s largest economies, is facing stiff demands for above-inflation wage increases by labour unions.
These demands come from Eskom’s biggest union, the National Union of Metalworkers (NUM), and others, such as the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and Solidarity.
This wage negotiation comes as South Africa has been subjected to prolonged stage 6 load shedding, with some analysts reporting stages surpassing stage 6 over the past weekend.
This year’s wage negotiations follow an impasse in 2022 that led to an unprotected strike, forcing the power utility to agree to a 7% wage increase agreement after a week of protests that pushed load shedding to stage 6 for the first time in years.
NUM spokesperson Olehile Kgware said in an interview with eNCA that employees are not immune to the cost-of-living crisis in South Africa.
“Eskom employees are not responsible for the prevailing economic conditions, and their livelihood needs to be maintained,” he said.
The union’s demands are as follows:
- 15% salary increase across the board;
- Housing allowance to be raised to R7,000, and employees to be allowed to buy houses anywhere in the country;
- Medical aid to shift to 80% (20% contribution by employees);
- Cellphone allowance of R1,000;
- R1,500 electricity allowance;
- Once-off R1,500 essential worker or danger allowance, as well as a separate voltage work allowance on a sliding scale;
- Performance bonus set at 25% of annual salary;
- R20,000 study benefit per child; and
- R10,000 car allowance through Eskom’s so-called vehicle X-scheme.
As part of these demands, the unions also noted that they want lower salary scales to be scrapped altogether and for all employees to be shifted to a specified level.
Additionally, employees should get four weeks of paternity leave without impacting contingency leave, and anyone retiring at 60 to leave with no penalties.
Eskom declined to comment on the three unions’ demands other than to confirm receipt, saying it had yet to complete a thorough analysis and costing.
Meanwhile President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to chair a special Cabinet meeting this Wednesday to debate slowing down the decommissioning of ageing coal power plants.
The urgent meeting was called after a ruling party national working committee on Monday confirmed that it would support the slowing down of the retirement of old coal power stations.
“According to insiders with knowledge of the discussions, the plan suggests that this would be done through public-private partnerships, limiting the financial burden to the fiscus.”
The decision to slow down the bringing to an end to the age of coal reliance stands in stark contrast to the country’s Just Transition Framework that entails the shift toward renewable energy.
The Just Transition has been advocated for by the presidency and has attracted $8.5 billion in foreign investment from rich countries involved in COP 26.
Under the multi-billion-dollar agreement Ramaphosa has with wealthier countries looking to assist in the decarbonisation of South Africa, there are a number of conditional loans that require the country to stick with its mandate of curtailing coal use.
Following tours to the embattled power utilities coal fleet, the newly appointed electricity minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa floated the option that he would promote investment into the refurbishment of coal power stations while boosting investment in private coal mines.
Despite this not being an official proposal for the way forward, he raised concerns about South Africa’s rapid decommissioning of coal power stations and replacing them with renewable energy sources that may not generate the same amount of power as the stations being taken offline.