Bus strike set to continue

The nationwide bus strike looks set to continue after employers and unions failed to reach agreement yesterday on the finer details of a settlement.

An offer mediated by independent arbitrators and put to the unions on Thursday saw an offer of an increase of 9% for the first year of the agreement, followed by 8% the following year.

Although workers accepted the offer, the sticking point was on the implementation date – which unions want backdated to the beginning of April.

National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) general secretary Irvin Jim said: “Workers are resolute that they want the offer backdated to April 1.”

Until this happened, the unions could not say the strike would end, said Jim.

Other issues still to be resolved include the payment of a nightshift allowance and the position of “dual drivers” and the hours they work.

These will be looked into by a joint task team which is still to be set up.

Late last night, union representatives indicated that they hoped to meet employers over the weekend in an effort to end the impasse.

Jim said the refusal of the employers to backdate the agreement was unacceptable “provocations” and that their attitude was forcing employees to be “militant”.