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- Satawu has rejected the CCMA-recommended settlement with Transnet.
- It says its members won't accept anything below inflation.
- Transnet tabled a revised offer at the CMMA on Wednesday, offering a 4.5% across-the-board increase in the current year, 5.3% in 2023/24, and 5.3% in 2024/25.
- For more stories, go to the News24 Business front page.
Workers from the SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) have rejected the Commission of Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)'s recommendations to try and solve its wage dispute with Transnet.
The CCMA Commissioner proposed a settlement between the two parties on Thursday. Estimates are that the the strike by Satawu and the United National Transport Union (UNTU) could cost the SA economy up to R1 billion a day.
"The union appreciates the CCMA Commissioner's presence during the negotiations from 10 – 15 October," wrote Satawu General Secretary, Jack Mazibuko.
"Although we appreciate the efforts of the Commissioner…our members have unanimously rejected the recommendations," he added in a letter addressed to the CEO at the Transnet Bargaining Council, Mthimkhulu Mashiya.
Mazibuko said the union couldn't accept the settlement recommendation because the Commissioner's proposal was below inflation.
"Our members feel that accepting anything below inflation will be a detriment of their livelihoods. They will accept anything above inflation," he said.
The union said it believes its demands are justifiable. The workers are demanding a 12% increase, while Transnet offered 1.5%, which it later increased to 3%.
In the latest bid to end the strike, Transnet tabled a three-year wage offer, offering a 4.5% across-the-board increase in the current year on Wednesday. The latest offer also includes a 5.3% across-the-board increase in 2023/24, a 5.3% across-the-board increase in 2024/25, and a 4.5% increase in the medical aid allowance in 2022/23 to be adjusted in subsequent years, in line with the increase.
READ | Transnet makes revised three-year offer to striking unions
Mazibuko said another reason for rejecting the CCMA's proposed settlement offer was that in Satawu's previous negotiations with Transnet, their negotiations contained a "no-retrenchment" clause; the union now has to accept a retrenchment clause.
The rail operator employs 40 000 people, and employment costs make up 66% of its cost base.
Satawu said it is willing to compromise with Transnet to ensure that production resumes without delays. But it also wants to mitigate conditions of poverty and structural inequities in SA.
"We believe that Transnet SOC has a responsibility to work with labour in mitigating the social harms caused by the crisis-riddled economic mode of production. This can be achieved by agreeing to the demands tables by employees that share a commonality of interest to reconfigure and grow the South African economy in the same proportion as their improved and secure socio-economic development," said Mazibuko.
