“And so, it seems inevitable that strike action will continue to increase, predominantly in the public sector but also elsewhere, until there is a “high noon”, or else some sort of agreed moderation in wage settlements, such as a national wage accord . . . “.
Andrew Levy, a labour economist and labour law adviser, wrote an article in Business Day earlier this week on Wage conflict. After pointing out that union power and potential should not be taken lightly and that COSATU affiliates have shown that they have the will and ability to keep members out on strike until their demands are met Andrew Levy makes the following observations:
“For our purposes, two important observations flow from this. This first is that such increases were won after strike action, and the second that these levels of settlement in turn affect expectations of future settlement, not only in the public sector but in the private sector as well. If nothing else, these expectations will add upward buoyancy to the strike trend line”.
It’s very true that the unions are bulldozing the employers by using their power bargain. I also feel employers should negotiate in good faith to avoid strike actions, lets take Eskom debacle as an example unions have reduced their demand to 9% but the employer fails to up their offer with 1%.On public sector employees last year they signed for increment and resolved that benefits will be negotiated separately but a year later the government only put R120.00 extra on R500.00 housing allowance, lets remember that unions initially wanted R1500.00 housing allowance but later reduced thier demand to R1000.00 but government is unfazed. Just imagine in this age a R620.00 housing allowance is a drop in the ocean as the housing prices sours by day.
Daan Groeneveldt says:
Strikes: Pay differentials – why management should share the blame
Management blame employees for the wave of threatened strikes during the world’s premier sporting event, but they need to be made accountable and share the blame if South Africa is crippled by strike action as early as next week.
There is an unfortunate false perception that the ‘bargaining unit’ and ‘management’ are two separate and different entities within the same organisation. The individuals in those entities cannot be treated differently, particularly with regard to pay determination.
Irrespective of the Labour Relations Act, in terms of section 27 of the Employment Equity Act (EEA) pay differentials must be proportional across the whole organisation and where they are disproportionate employers must correct the problem. In other words one measuring device, like a thermometer, must be used across the entire organisation.
Collective bargaining is but one of the means used to correct disproportionate pay differentials. If management refuse to discuss the process and the determination of their own increases and bonuses there would appear to be a serious breach of the legitimate requirements of the EEA.
Management must also be held accountable for refusing or failing to disclose information requested by the unions during the negotiating process.