This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
Fin24 reports that power utility Eskom said on Thursday that its latest pay hike offer could lead the cash-strapped company into deeper cost cuts.
Eskom confirmed that it had upped its offer to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 5.75% to 7%. Spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe noted that the energy regulator had recommended in 2012 that wage increases should be linked to inflation. He commented: "The 7% offer we have in place is beyond what the regulator indicated to us...the regulator had given us a type of benchmark for inflation-linked increases. Now that we exceeded the offer by at least one percent point, we will have to make deeper cuts elsewhere so that we don't affect our financial liquidity negatively." Eskom plans to reduce costs by R61bn over the next three years. Phasiwe said the firm would look for new areas to cut costs but did not elaborate. Meantime, the NUM has said it would seek the views of its members on the latest pay increase offer.
- Read this report in full at Fin24
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page