Workers at Eskom’s Medupi power station were not yet back at work by Thursday, despite continued engagement between union representatives and subcontractors.
Talks were continuing with the aim of starting the return to work as soon as possible, Eskom spokesperson Hilary Joffe told Engineering News Online on Thursday.
"The situation at Medupi is calm. As we have said, safety is a priority for Eskom and we require assurances that the site will be safe and that there will be no disruptive or violent behaviour, before the return to work can commence," she said.
She added that there was a Project Labour Agreement governing the Medupi site, to which all the contractors and unions were party and which provided procedures for dispute resolution and disciplinary processes, where necessary.
Workers embarked on illegal protest action on Wednesday last week, resulting in the injury of 25 workers and causing the subsequent lock-out of all employees owing to safety concerns.
Last week’s protest primarily involved workers affiliated to the metals industries and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa who were employed by Hitachi and Murray & Roberts Projects.
While construction timelines remained unchanged, Joffe said any labour disruption posed a serious threat to the project's tight schedule and could impact on Medupi's ability to meet its power generation deadline.
The power station’s first unit is expected to generate first power to South Africa’s national grid by the end of this year.