Nissan and the Metalworkers’ Union ended an ongoing dispute over retrenchments at the manufacturer when they signed a new agreement on Tuesday.
Nissan and the Metalworkers’ Union ended an ongoing dispute over retrenchments at the manufacturer when they signed a new agreement on Tuesday.
According to the terms of the new agreement, 916 workers will apply for voluntary retrenchment packages. The offer expires today.
An earlier “historical” agreement aimed at “rejuvenating” the workforce failed last month after only 27 employees applied for severance packages. The agreement was aimed at replacing older workers at the Rosslyn plant near Pretoria. The affected workers were to have then trained the new recruits.
The union said that due to the “low interest” in the plan, a different agreement needed to be negotiated.
This resulted in about 2 500 workers planning to march to the Japanese embassy in Pretoria to protest the retrenchment plan. They wanted their concerns relayed to the company’s headquarters in Japan.
Nissan, however, obtained a court interdict against the march and indicated that any workers participating in the action would be dismissed. The union agreed to continue negotiations with the manufacturer last Friday.
Union spokesman Dumisa Ntuli told Business Report on Monday that he expected the response to the new agreement to be much better this time, and said there would be enough applicants.
Nissan’s human resources senior vice-president Henry Grimbeek said if there were too few applicants, the manufacturer would have to start forced retrenchments based on a last-in first-out basis. He added that the basics of the agreement were still the same as the previous plan.
