Strike season hits South Africa

After two years of Covid-related wage deferments, salary freezes and layoffs, government departments and businesses across South Africa are grappling with a growing strike season.

The effects of the industrial action are already being keenly felt in South Africa after an illegal strike at Eskom crippled the power utility and threw the country into stage 6 load shedding.

While the government and Eskom workers were ultimately able to reach an agreement, the backlog of maintenance and other issues created by the strike means South Africa faces power cuts for at least another week.

The illegal Eskom strikes followed two other strikes – in the trucking industry and the mining sector – which went on for weeks and even months, doing untold damage to the economy.

SARS

The South African Revenue Service was forced to close more than 18 of its physical branches this week as its staff embark on a wage strike. The action against the revenue collector comes at a particularly inopportune time as the country has recently begun its personal income tax filing season.

SARS staff first embarked on strike in May, when labour and the employer could not settle on a wage agreement. The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) and Public Servants Association (PSA) say they will now continue with industrial action, citing the ‘successful’ strike at Eskom and SARS’s proposed wage increase of 1.39%.

The revenue collector has previously said that it simply did not have the resources to meet the labour demands of CPI plus 7%.

“SARS has left us with no option other than to mobilise our mass power and take our battle to the streets. This is the only power that we have as workers in fighting unfair conditions of work. We have been negotiating in good faith and with much patience,” Nehawu said.

“SARS has stalled and negotiated in bad faith. It is for these reasons that as Nahwu, we cannot delay the struggle to better the working conditions of our members and workers in general.

“As Nehawu, we shall do everything in our power to fight for these reasonable and achievable demands and rights of our members and workers at SARS.”

Automotive sector 

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has also threatened industrial action as it calls for a wage increase of up to 20% in the multibillion-rand automotive industry.

Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim told BusinessDay that the negotiations were ‘give and take’, with workers likely to agree to increases of between 10% and 20%, ‘depending on how you persuade the other party to move’.

Jim was adamant that the automotive sector could afford the wage demands as it is a ‘profitable business’. This is despite recent flooding, logistics issues and an international supply-chain crisis all hammering the sector in the last year.

Private security 

The private security sector is threatening to leave many sites and areas unguarded if it goes ahead with a strike over wages.

Twenty-three unions representing half a million workers in the private security sector are demanding an average 16% wage increase each year over three years, eNCA reports.

Security companies and other employers are offering an average of 3.5% Unions say they are approaching the CCMA for a strike certificate and have urged the companies to up their offer.

Read: Authorities target ‘mafia’ to end power outages in South Africa