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TRANSNET CAN IMPLEMENT INCREASE UNILATERALLY -- EXPERT
There is nothing in the Labour Relations Act to prevent Transnet from unilaterally implementing a wage increase that workers rejected, an expert said on Tuesday. "I can't see it being a case that Transnet cannot do what they are doing," said professor Piet le Roux, a labour law expert. "There is nothing in the Labour Relations Act that in principle prevents them from unilaterally implementing." Unless there was an agreement in place between the employer and the union that prevented a unilateral implementation, Transnet was acting well within the law, said Le Roux.
Transnet spokesman Mboniso Sigonyela told Sapa that the 11 percent wage increase would be implemented for all workers excluding management. "It will be implemented with effect from April 1," said Sigonyela. No talks had been scheduled with the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union (Satawu), whose members were still on strike on Tuesday, nearly two-and-a-half weeks after starting the strike. "Our offer is 11 percent and it's still on the table... Satawu can come in and accept," said Sigonyela. He said Transnet management's wage increases would be determined later in the year. One of the unions' gripes with Transnet was that its management last year got 14 percent increases while workers got seven percent, but Sigonyela denied this, saying management got five percent last year. Satawu policy research officer Jane Barrett said a settlement offer was tabled to Transnet on Sunday.
"The ball is in Transnet's court," said Barrett. "Our view is that they are holding the country to ransom; they haven't shifted in two-and-a-half weeks. "Transnet has got to balance up the impact on the economy and their refusal to shift off their 11 percent." But asked what the impact was on workers' pockets, who were not receiving any pay while on strike, Barrett replied: "We don't instruct our members... they elected to go on strike. They have made the choice." Satawu was demanding a 15 percent increase.
Economists warned last week that any strike going on for longer than a week negatively affected workers. The "no work, no pay" rule applied, which meant that striking workers would receive less than half their normal pay at the end of May. The Transnet strike had already cost the agricultural sector more than R1 billion, Agriculture Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson said on Monday. In addition, Transnet said striking workers had caused R30 million in damages to its equipment.
Satawu issued secondary strike notices to several port-related companies on Monday. Should the Transnet strike not be resolved by June 1, sympathy strikes would be legal in these companies, said Satawu general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu.
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