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Engineering News reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) on Friday issued a notice of an indefinite wage strike at the Bombela Operating Company (BOC), which is the management and operating company for the Gautrain.
The notice indicates that the strike will commence on the morning of Monday, 5 October. The parties had apparently been negotiating since March, but their engagements were temporarily suspended during the hard Covid-19 lockdown. They resumed negotiations around June. Numsa stated: "The CCMA issued a nonresolution certificate allowing union members to go on strike. Despite the fact that the union has been issued with a certificate to strike since August 27, we still proposed a meeting with the BOC management to try and resolve the impasse, but unfortunately this was turned down by BOC management.” According to Numsa, the BOC management issued an ultimatum that it would implement a 4% wage increase from 1 October, despite the parties not having signed an agreement. “At the heart of the issue is the fact that the management is imposing this increase and refuses to negotiate with us to find a middle ground. Our proposal to management was for an 8% increase, the same as last year, and we are willing to compromise,” the union indicated. Numsa asserted that its members had voted “overwhelmingly” for the strike. Noting that for workers to embark on a legal strike, 50%+1 of union members were required to vote in favour of the strike, the BOC claimed that by the numbers provided by Numsa itself, “it is clear that this was not the case.” The company called on Numsa and workers “to respect the outcome of the ballot in which workers voted.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News
- Read too, Gautrain services to come to a standstill on Monday, at Moneyweb
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page