The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has offered its assistance to defuse Solidarity’s strike at petrochemicals giant Sasol, the trade union reported on Friday.

This follows after thousands of workers participated in a protest march outside Sasol’s operations in Secunda, Mpumalanga, on Thursday, as part of full-scale strike action, owing to the exclusion of white employees from Sasol’s Khanyisa ownership scheme.

Solidarity has confirmed that it would participate in the CCMA process.

“Transformation disputes where race plays a major role, are per definition divisive and detrimental to South Africa if prolonged for too long. If Sasol and Solidarity can find a solution to the dispute, it will not only be good for Sasol, it will also be a positive example for South Africa. However, we have not yet received any indication whether Sasol will participate in the process,” said Solidarity CE Dr Dirk Hermann.

Meanwhile, Solidarity is continuing its strike for at least three more weeks and it plans to file a complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission early next week.

Further, the union will approach the Labour Court in Johannesburg, Gauteng, to obtain permission for all its members across South Africa to go on strike along with the Sasol members. This court application follows after the National Economic Development and Labour Council rejected Solidarity’s earlier application for sympathy protests.

Sasol says its Khayisa scheme is motivated by the need to comply with rules on black economic empowerment, while Solidarity argues that it discriminates against white workers.

SASOL SIDE

Solidarity originally declared a dispute against Sasol in January 2018, objecting to the exclusion of white employees from Sasol Khanyisa Phase 2. After a second round of CCMA discussions, the CCMA issued a certificate of non-resolution in May 2018 after not being able to reach common ground.

On June 1, Sasol officially launched Sasol Khanyisa after having received shareholder approval in November.

“Our intention is to create meaningful financial benefits for about 230 000 black public shareholders and qualifying employees, and to achieve 25% direct and indirect black ownership of Sasol South Africa.

“We are aware of negative reports and sentiment expressed from various quarters of society against Sasol Khanyisa. These reports are largely premised on a misunderstanding of elements of the transaction pertaining to employee participation,” the company stated previously.

Employee participants in Sasol Khanyisa Phase 1 are all permanent Sasol employees, regardless of race, tenure or seniority, who were participants of Sasol’s previous scheme, Inzalo, and still actively employed on June 1.

Phase 2 of Sasol Khanyisa is extended only to its black permanent employees (African, Indian, Coloured), as defined by the Department of Trade and Industry’s Codes of Good Practice.

Qualifying employees in Sasol Khanyisa will receive equal shareholding across the organisation. The qualifying criteria for employees are as follows: all Sasol employees who participated in the Sasol Inzalo scheme, and who were permanently employed on June 1, will participate in Phase 1 and are eligible for R100 000 worth of Sasol ordinary shares, or Sasol black economic empowerment ordinary shares which will vest in 2021.

There were 6 313 white employees and 11 962 black employees in this Phase at the start of the transaction.

All black employees who were permanently employed on June 1, are participating in Phase 2 and are eligible for 1 240 Sasol Khanyisa rights to shares which will vest in June 2028 or the earlier of settlement of funding obligations.

This means that the rights to shares are fully funded through notional vendor financing and any dividends declared over the next ten years will be used to service the funding obligations and create net value at the end of the empowerment period for participants. There were 18 282 black employees in Phase 2 at the start of the transaction.

“Transformation, in the form of share ownership in SSA by previously disadvantaged groups, is an important business, social and moral imperative for Sasol.

“Sasol Khanyisa is not part of Sasol’s employee remuneration or benefit structures. It was specifically designed to address the ownership component of the broad-based black economic empowerment codes and therefore Sasol Khanyisa primarily focuses on the inclusion of Black employees and public shareholders,” Sasol said.