Eskom offers generous wage hike

If trade unions accept Eskom’s latest wage offer, workers in the Eskom bargaining unit will receive above-inflation wage increases for the next three years.

According to Solidarity deputy general secretary for energy, aviation and defence Deon Reyneke, Eskom has offered workers 6.2% in the current year, CPI + 0.75% or 6%, whichever is the greatest in the second year, and CPI + 0.5% or 6%, whichever is the greatest, in the third year.

The three unions in the bargaining unit – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) and Solidarity – will take this to their members and will reconvene with Eskom on July 5, says Reyneke.

If the offer is accepted, it will apply from April 1 this year, which means workers will receive the increase retrospectively for the months that have passed.

Eskom initially offered no increase, but had to change its position after striking workers disrupted operations and caused rolling blackouts.

Public enterprises minister Pravin Gordhan intervened in an effort to get the parties back to the negotiating table. Eskom then increased its offer to 4.7% in the first year and an inflation-linked increase in subsequent years.

NUM and Numsa initially demanded a 15% increase, but later all the unions adjusted their demands to 9% in the first year, 8.6% in the second and 8% in the third year.

The wage increase comes against a background of doubt about Eskom’s ability to operate as a going concern. The utility blames this largely on decisions by national energy regulator Nersa’s decisions to award it considerably less revenue that it applied for over an extended period.

Median earnings of Eskom bargaining unit workers, mostly technical staff, is about R300 000. According to economist Mike Schüssler, this compares favourably with a teacher with a tertiary qualification and 25 years’ experience.

Schüssler adds that the inflation rate is currently not even 5%, and that few employers in the private sector can afford to give their staff an increase above that.

In one way or another, he says, the consumer will end up paying for the Eskom workers’ salary increases.

“We cannot allow a monopoly, in the current milieu, to grant above inflation increases.”