Pretoria – The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) have signed a 7% settlement agreement with Eskom.
The settlement agreement was signed on Tuesday afternoon.
The power utility has offered workers 7% salary increases across the board and R400 hikes in housing allowance.
“The agreement shall apply from July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023 to all permanent bargaining unit employees employed at Eskom.
“The conditions of service which were unilaterally withdrawn, and which caused so much pain to our members, have been restored.
“We have also secured an improvement from last year, after Eskom imposed 1.5%,’’ said Numsa national spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola.
Earlier, trade union Solidarity confirmed that its members had accepted Eskom’s new wage offer.
In 2018, Eskom paid workers a once-off R10,000 that accompanied wage increases of between 7% and 7.5%.
Meanwhile, there have been growing concerns that prolonged and higher stages of rotational power cuts may persist, threatening any prospect of an economic recovery experienced in the first three months of the year.
Investec economist Lara Hodes said the generation and distribution of electricity was likely to contract further as power cuts continued to weigh heavily on the economy.
“Small- and medium-sized businesses are most vulnerable, especially those that cannot afford expensive generators or inverters,” Hodes said.
“Insufficient electricity supply remains one of the country’s key challenges and has added to the subdued consumer and business confidence readings.”
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