{"id":857508,"date":"2026-04-17T11:20:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:20:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=857508"},"modified":"2026-04-17T11:20:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T09:20:35","slug":"eskom-workers-score-double-inflation-wage-increase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/857508\/eskom-workers-score-double-inflation-wage-increase\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom workers score double-inflation wage increase"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Power utility Eskom has announced that it has formally concluded its 2026 wage negotiation cycle, with workers accepting a 7% annual increase, starting 1 July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) rejected the offer, two other unions,  the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity, accepted it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NUMSA had <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/857460\/eskom-wage-hikes-hit-a-major-roadblock\/\"><strong>indicated<\/strong><\/a> that its members wanted an 8% increase and had declared a deadlock, threatening to push the matter to arbitration with demonstrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Unions were demanding 15% increases when the wage negotiations began at the end of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Because the signatory unions represent more than 75% of the employees in the forum, Eskom said the agreement will be binding, including for those workers affiliated with NUMSA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The utility added that maintaining a three\u2011year framework establishes a predictable environment that reduces the volatility associated with annual bargaining cycles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The agreement continues Eskom\u2019s established practice of multi\u2011year collective bargaining arrangements, supporting cost predictability and operational stability,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The key elements of the agreement are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A 7% annual salary increase for all employees within the bargaining unit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The agreement is effective for a three\u2011year period, starting from 1 July 2026, providing labour certainty over the medium term.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The established multi\u2011year framework secures the labour stability and skills necessary to maintain and reinforce Eskom\u2019s recent gains in overall system performance,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eskom said the agreement was in line with the group&#8217;s Cost Optimisation and Revenue Enhancement (CORE) programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This programme is targeting R112\u202fbillion in cost savings over five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Staff costs are one of the biggest line items for the state-owned power utility, with far above-inflation increases compounding over the years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eskom\u2019s 2025 financial year report showed that the power utility incurred an <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/615542-eskoms-r1-million-average-salary-beats-telkom-transnet-sabc-and-state-nuclear-and-it-firms.html\">average cost of R1.026 million per employee<\/a><\/strong>, 12.4% higher than in the previous year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For 2026 onwards, the 7% wage hikes are more than double inflation, which is currently around 3%, and projected to be between 3.2% and 3.5% for this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the near term, the market chaos stemming from the United States&#8217; war against Iran in the Middle East is expected to push inflation to around 4.0%-4.5%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, this is seen as a temporary shock, with the South African Reserve Bank also expected to hike interest rates to contain it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the medium term, the central bank will be driving inflation towards its new target of 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Notably, the wage increases for Eskom workers will kick in on the same day that municipal electricity users will see tariffs increase by around 9%, subject to Nersa approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Municipalities are currently in the process of submitting their proposed hikes to Nersa, with the deadline set for 21 April 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Power utility Eskom has announced that it has formally concluded its 2026 wage negotiation cycle, with workers accepting a 7% annual increase, starting 1 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":842898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164],"class_list":["post-857508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857508","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=857508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":857513,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857508\/revisions\/857513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}