Trade union Solidarity has officially declared a dispute with the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC), claiming in a statement this week that the bargaining council was taking “unilateral and unlawful” decisions that undermined its own constitution, labour legislation and sound collective bargaining.

This after the MEIBC’s management committee on February 3 resolved that two collective agreements must be concluded with respect to bargaining levies payable to the council for costs concerning administration and dispute resolution.

The collective agreements were shortly thereafter submitted to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant for expansion within the industry.

However, according to Solidarity, the collective agreements had not been negotiated and had been signed only by certain parties in the bargaining council before being submitted to the Minister.

Bargaining council officials did not provide Solidarity with an opportunity to sign the agreements, it added.

Solidarity metal and engineering industry head Marius Croucamp asserted that the council’s constitution stipulated that all participating parties must consent to the submission of such applications and must sign collective agreements.

“Solidarity is a full participating member of the MEIBC. It appears as if we have been excluded from the decision on the application in an intentional and pernicious way,” he noted.

Solidarity had since called for the convening of an urgent special management committee meeting at which it could raise its objections.

“The council is supposed to act in the best interests of the industry. At the moment, there is discord among industry players and the council’s disregard for its own constitution is fuelling it on.

“We want to prevent our members and the industry from suffering in the long term as a result and we want to prevent that such malpractices further destroy sound collective bargaining,” Croucamp said.

In December, Oliphant expanded the wage agreement for the period 2014 to 2017 to nonparticipating parties in the industry, leading to what Solidarity described as “major” dissatisfaction among several industry players.

According to Croucamp, the bargaining council submitted the wage agreement providing for increases of between 8% and 10% for workers in the industry to the Minister in the same “unlawful” manner.

“Many employers are in the process of approaching the Labour Court in a bid to declare the agreement invalid. Moreover, the Labour Court recently declared the previous wage agreement, which was also expanded by the Minister, invalid on the grounds of similar irregularities,” he commented.

The MEIBC could not be reached for comment.