Tyre manufacturer Continental Tyre South Africa (CTSA) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) reached an agreement late last week, with workers returned to work on Saturday, ending the wage strike that began on April 15 at CTSA’s manufacturing facility, in Port Elizabeth.

Prior to the new agreement, CTSA had two shift systems, namely a weekend shift and a week shift. Week shift employees were paid straight time during the week and if they worked over the weekend were paid time-and-a-half for Saturday and double time for Sunday, which was in line with a bargaining council agreement.

On the other hand, weekend shift employees were paid straight time for work done on a Saturday and time-and-a-half for Sunday work.

Numsa had demanded that weekend shift workers be paid time-and-a-half for Saturday and double time for Sunday.

The agreement reached by the parties comprised a four-shift model that would, in effect, allow weekend shift workers to be paid time-and-a-half for Saturdays and double time for Sundays, CTSA MD Dieter Horni said.

He did, however, point out that, as a consequence of acceding to Numsa’s demand, CTSA would have to reduce its manning accordingly, adding that the company would follow the necessary processes outlined by law to do so.

"While we endeavour to maintain a stable work and production environment, a level of business realignment will be necessary to accommodate the new shift model and increased wage demands by Numsa,” Horni said.

Commenting on the impact of the strike action, Horni said CTSA would review and table its losses to enable it to put corrective measures in place for the sustained competitiveness of the business within the industry.

“Through proper planning and the professionalism of the teams, we were able to meet the needs of our original equipment clients and replacements markets with minimal disruption,” he added.

CTSA currently employed more than 1 600 people.