{"id":751574,"date":"2024-02-14T12:26:41","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T10:26:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=751574"},"modified":"2024-02-14T12:26:54","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T10:26:54","slug":"nationwide-strike-looming-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/751574\/nationwide-strike-looming-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Nationwide strike looming in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has threatened a nationwide strike after wage talks reached a deadlock with employers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First submitted in December 2023, the trade union made three core demands to be implemented across the bus passenger sector:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Primary health care \u2013 full compulsory healthcare for all workers in the industry, subject to qualifying exemptions. Employer contributes 50%, and worker contributes 50%;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Increase in the allowance for the double driver* from R450 to R900. (Drivers do, on average, 18 trips per month; this then represents about R25-00 per trip); and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A 10% wage increase across the board (During the course of negotiations, Numsa reduced its demand from 15% to 10%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>*A double driver is a second driver that accompanies another during long-distance or overnight commutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Numsa&#8217;s general secretary, Irvin Jim, announced the union had participated in wage talks from 5 to 9 February 2024 with the employer in the sector at the South African Road Passenger Bargaining Council (SARPBAC).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Jim explained that despite submitting their demands as early as December 2023, the bus bosses had come \u201cunprepared\u201d to respond to workers\u2019 core demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These employers include Bus companies who are members of SARPBC, such as Putco, Bojanala\u2019 Algoa, Great North Transport and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Numsa <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8_eQEgJL6Jo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">added<\/a> that it was taken aback by the employer&#8217;s response during negotiations, which is offering a conditional 4% increase, and they demanded that the unions drop all other demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a result, Numsa declared a dispute against employers, noting that the current agreement will expire on 31 March, and, therefore, &#8220;have no choice but to act quickly to try and resolve this round of wage talks&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The union added it would be meeting with shop stewards in the bus passenger sector today (Wednesday, 14 February) to map the way forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We demand that employers come back with a better offer; otherwise, if they fail, <strong>a national strike in the bus passenger sector is unavoidable<\/strong>,&#8221; it said \u2013 which would leave commuters reliant on bus operators stranded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/751202\/r160-billion-investment-for-transnet-what-the-money-will-be-spent-on\/\">R160 billion investment for Transnet \u2013 what the money will be spent on<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has threatened a nationwide that could leave communters stranded. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":751634,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[5687,853],"class_list":["post-751574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-numsa","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751574"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":751642,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751574\/revisions\/751642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/751634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}