Interim court order preventing metals industry wage settlement extension
The Labour Court in Johannesburg on Thursday granted an interim court order preventing the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) from requesting Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to extend the wage settlement agreed to by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) and trade unions, in July, to nonparties.
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and five other unions had accepted Seifsa’s offer of a 10% wage increase for the lowest grades for three years; however, the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (Neasa) had not signed the agreement, arguing that the increase was at an “unsustainable level” and would cause the metals and engineering industry to decline even further.
Neasa had, subsequently, initiated a still-ongoing lockout of workers who had participated in the strike.
“The court's decision is a major victory for Neasa's bid to stop the parties from having the Minister extend this detrimental agreement to the whole Industry,” Neasa CE Gerhard Papenfus said.
In its Labour Court application, Neasa had asked for the MEIBC management committee to be declared invalid, as well as for all decisions taken by this committee relating to the request to the Minister of Labour to extend the wage settlement agreement to be declared invalid.
“At the time of signing this agreement, Seifsa's CEO admitted that Seifsa reluctantly agreed to the agreement and agreed that it will lead to heavy job losses. Seifsa, with the help of primarily Numsa, the MEIBC and the Department of Labour, now attempts to extend this agreement to the rest of the Industry. This is simply ludicrous. We owe it to the metal industry to prevent this from happening,” Papenfus said.
The date to hear arguments to enable the court to make a final decision was set for November 4.
Article Enquiry
Email Article
Save Article
Feedback
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
Research Reports
Projects
Latest Multimedia
Latest News
Showroom
Iritron delivers advanced automation, control, and optimisation solutions to the Mining, Minerals & Metals, Consumer Package Goods and...
VISIT SHOWROOM
At Airshrink - CiP, we surpass customer expectations with innovative MV and LV cable accessories, including heat shrink joints, terminations,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
