Organised Labour today informed Transnet to review its wage offer to its employees tomorrow or else the Unions will have no choice but to declare a dispute and then the Employer must take the consequences thereof.
“This is the first time in all our history that we have received such a hostile attitude from the Employer in wage negotiations. We are not here to play.
Organised Labour is prepared to go out on the streets.
“Transnet is forgetting that it was ordinary workers who made sacrifices by working throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to get the Employer out of the woods,” says Steve Harris, General Secretary of the United National Transnet Union (UNTU) on behalf of Organised Labour at the Transnet Bargaining Council.
After a week in which the Employer was requested to return to the negotiating table with a serious wage offer, Organised Labour had to hear there is no room in Transnet’s budget for wage increases.
“Without an improvement in productivity this business is going downhill. If we must present a across the board wage increase, Organised Labour must help with a plan where to get the money from.
“A 1% wage increase will cost R236 million, 2% will cost R471 million and 3% will cost R708 million. We don’t have this in our budget, and we will have to make a trade off,” the Employer said.
Organised labour disagreed, saying it is the work of managers to determine where they were going to get the money from.
Management have requested time till Wednesday thus resuming negotiations on Wednesday 22 April 2021.
UNTU will keep its members abreast of any new developments as the negotiation process unfolds.
Esteemed greetings,
SA Harris
GENERAL SECRETARY
