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MEIBC stands firm against Neasa claims

22nd April 2016

By: Natasha Odendaal

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) general secretary Thulani Mthiyane has dismissed claims by National Employers’ Association of South Africa (Neasa) CEO Gerhard Papenfus that the MEIBC was responsible for setting in motion a “devastating” process of deindustrialisation, contributing to unemployment and economic and social instability.

This accusation followed in the wake of the MEIBC earlier warning of closure should an 18% levy increase fail to materialise, with its financial woes exacerbated by a four-month delay last year in the renewal of the administration and expenses levy and dispute resolution levy agreement.

The council had been facing disruption in its dispute resolution service, impacting its service provision to some 300 000 employees and over 10 000 employers as it was unable to pay service providers amid financial difficulties emerging from a number of challenges, the council said at the time.

The MEIBC had to make use of reserves to continue servicing the industry after the Labour Minister failed to extend the agreements for the levies during the first four months in 2015, in addition to not receiving any levy increase in five years, Mthiyane said.

Papenfus, however, said the council only had itself to blame for its demise while it was responsible for causing the steel industry “to be 40% more expensive than the second most expensive industry governed by any other bargaining council dispensation”, through its pursuit of unaffordable wage agreements, that were, in part, enforced on employers that had chosen not to be a part of it.

“This has led to hundreds of thousands of job losses – 90 000 since 2008, of which 40 000 was lost in 2015 alone,” Papenfus commented in a statement earlier this week in response to media reports of the MEIBC’s imminent closure.

“The MEIBC parties, excluding Neasa, have signed a number of agreements that seeks to grow the industry [and] sustain current jobs while creating new jobs. Some employers in our industry are accusing agents of the council of preventing them from employing job seekers who are prepared to work for wages that are 70% below the minimum of this industry. These are people who are contributing to social instability,” Mthiyane countered.

He assured that the MEIBC collective agreements were “always supported” by all six industry trade unions and 23 Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa associations, adding that the majority of the steel companies were “shelling a lot of jobs” and that it had “nothing to do” with the MEIBC agreements and their extension to nonparties.

Further, the Labour Relations Act allowed for the extension of bargaining council agreements by the Labour Minister to nonparties.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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