From 0% to 7.5%: Eskom marathon wage talks to resume next week
Date: Jul 19, 2018
Marathon wage negotiations between Eskom and trade unions are set to resume next week.
This is according to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which sent out a tweet late on Tuesday evening, following a meeting with Eskom and NUM, Solidarity and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).
The NUM said that at the meeting on July 27 unions would provide Eskom with feedback about how their members reacted to the power utility’s latest wage offer.
Two offers
On Wednesday morning, Eskom deputy spokesperson Dikatso Mothae told Fin24 that Eskom put two offers on the table at the latest round of negotiations. The first option was a 7% increase per year for the three years outlined in the talks, with a housing allowance adjusted by consumer price index.
The second option was 7.5% in year one, 7% in year two and 7% in year three, with no adjustment in terms of housing allowance.
Mothae said the unions all agreed to take the two offers on the table to their members.
“We (all unions and Eskom) will reconvene on July 27, and we are hopeful that an agreement is imminent,” Mothae said.
She would not comment on how long the talks stretched into Tuesday evening, or whether Eskom was concerned that the talks would escalate to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
