South Africa’s automotive employers body says there are no talks scheduled for this weekend to break the country’s colossal strike that will now cost at least US$812m, as unions are not putting a pay and benefits offer to members until Monday (2 September).
Deadlock continues as the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) outlines the package – thought to include an uprated pay offer of 10% – to its rank and file – despite the employers maintaining the labour body leadership has accepted the proposals.
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“They [NUMSA] have to explain this offer to the shop floor – when a certain segment of workers says it is not certain and we must be given more – you can’t say NUMSA is agreed,” South African Automotive Employers Association (AMEO) chairman, Thapelo Molapo, told just-auto. [However], “Their leadership has agreed.
“The proposal we are talking about is a fairly complex package – wage adjustments and benefit adjustments. It is an extremely stressful situation. The flipside is we are bargaining for a multi-year agreement and it is absolutely important every single worker understands what the deal is about.”
AMEO has costed the walkout, involving up to 31,000 workers, at US$58m per day as tens of thousands of vehicles are lost to production, while employers are warning of the damage the almost two-week old strike is having on South Africa’s image as a manufacturing nation.
The National Association of Automobile Makers of South Africa (NAAMSA) declines to confirm whether or not any new pay offer comprises 10% – it had originally put forward 8% – or indeed if any improvement had been made – but did say there would be no movement on its upgraded package.
“The employers basically said the offer is the final offer,” NAAMSA director, Nico Vermeulen, told just-auto from South Africa. “The strike is still on as we speak – I can’t go into details. The final offer is spread over three years – there are different percentages for each year. It is at a sensitive stage.
“Anything can happen within the next hour, next day.”
AMEO’s suggestion however, of improvements to benefits associated with wages, will certainly have triggered a reaction among the NUMSA leadership.
The union has specifically linked its demands to improving workers’ living conditions, maintaining even its 14% pay request must come accompanied by a bundle of housing and transport benefits.
NUMSA was not immediately available for comment.
