The Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seisfa) on Tuesday reluctantly accepted a Ministerial proposal on wage offers, but would not back down on the need for Section 37 of the Main Agreement of the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) to be “tightened up” to protect employers from two-tier bargaining.

Seifsa conceded to Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant’s proposal to offer wage increases of 10% to low-level employees in the metals and engineering sector over three years.

The "conditionally-approved" wage agreement comprised 10% for rates F, G and H in 2014, for rates G and H in 2015 and for rate H in 2016, and 8% in 2014, 7.5% in 2015 and 7% in 2016 respectively for rate A, in an effort to end the nearly four-week strike in the engineering and metals sector.

The proposal was conditional on the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) accepting the offer by Friday, CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba said in a statement.

The deal was also conditional on the unions agreeing to the inclusion of a clause in the main agreement that would ensure that any matter having a material impact on the cost of employment would not be raised for negotiation at company level, but solely within the centralised collective bargaining structure of the MEIBC.

“Members of the federation, overwhelmingly, reiterated their position that they would not sign any settlement agreement until their concerns about recent Labour Court judgments regarding Section 37 were addressed,” Nyatsumba stated.

Earlier this year, a Labour Court judgment ruled that trade unions could raise – at company level – and strike over matters not specifically mentioned in Section 37 of the main agreement, even if they had the effect of increasing the cost of employment.

"Our members are bitterly disappointed about the fact that they have made numerous concessions, including offering unaffordable increases that are considerably above inflation and threaten their businesses, but have got absolutely nothing in return,” Nyatsumba added.

He pointed out that the high wage increases proposed would “inevitably” lead to “massive job losses” as companies sought to reduce their costs.