Motor industry workers are set to march in Johannesburg on Wednesday to protest over failed wage negotiations, according to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
Motor industry workers are set to march in Johannesburg on Wednesday to protest over failed wage negotiations, according to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.
According to , the wage negotiations affect 180 000 workers at petrol stations, component manufacturing firms, car dealers and panel beaters. The union said about 1 500 workers would march to the offices of the Fuel Retailers Association (FRA) and Retail Motor Industry Organisation (RMI).
“The protest action is over the rejection of the union’s demands and a shameful 7,7 per cent increase on minimum rates of pay,” said Dumisa Ntuli, Numsa spokesperson.
He said the union wanted the wage increases of all workers to be backdated to the signing of the collective agreement, a one-year wage agreement and the removal of area wage differentials. He said the problem was the method used to grant increases.
“For years now Numsa has been fighting with employers to grant increases on what workers are actually earning instead of minimum rates of pay set by the bargaining council.
“The majority of the workers in the industry earn more than the rates set by the bargaining council. What this means is when there is an agreement on wages, the increase is only applied on the minimum set by the council and not on what workers earn,” Ntuli said.
“As a result, the wage increase on minimums will only benefit 20 per cent of the workforce. The increases granted on minimums have not kept pace with inflation and many of the workers in the industry have been getting poorer,” he said.
RMI chief executive Jeff Osborne told the newspaper one negotiation on actual wages was not possible. “A single across-the-board percentage increase on wages would never be able to suit all the needs and requirements of businesses [in the sector],” he said.