Eskom obtains court interdict against striking workers

10 August 2016

Johannesburg - Eskom obtained a court interdict on Tuesday to prevent employees from embarking on a strike.

This comes after the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said its members at Eskom will embark on a full-blown strike in all nine provinces of South Africa on Wednesday.

According to NUM national spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu, the power utility obtained an interdict against the wage strike by members, which started on Monday. NUM is currently communicating with the shop steward council on the issue, he said.

Khulu Pasiwe, spokesperson for Eskom said that the court interdict will enable the power utility to take disciplinary action against employees who are not at work because of the strike. "Employees are not supposed to be striking, picketing or demonstrating. If their conduct is contrary to the court ruling they will be breaking the law and will have to account to the court."

The union is set to meet with Eskom at 10:00. NUM called an urgent national shop steward council meeting on Tuesday to discuss Eskom's decision to reconsider its 7% offer, Paris Mashego, NUM Eskom energy sector coordinator, told Fin24.

Pasiwe said that the aim is to reach "some agreement" regarding wage demands. "Eskom has always been offering a 7% to 9% wage increase," he said.

The gap between Eskom's offer and NUM's demands is narrowing, said Pasiwe. After the national shop steward meeting yesterday, members revised down their demand of a 12% wage increase to 10% for the lowest paid workers and 8.5% for the highest paid workers, said Mammburu. The housing allowance has also been revised down from R5 000 to R3 000.

This article first appeared on Fin24, see here.