Necsa, unions still in wage negotiations

The South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa) on Tuesday said it was still engaging with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union and Pelindaba Workers Unions on salary increases and conditions of service.

Negotiations started in May, with the unions submitting 11 demands. Management provided the unions with all the relevant financial information and requested them to review their demands in the light of Necsa’s financial position.

The unions declared a dispute after the second round of negotiations, which they also referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration. A revised proposal was presented by management to the unions in an attempt to break the impasse. However, the unions also rejected this.

“The negotiations with both unions are still in progress and will continue until a resolution is reached. We remain optimistic on reaching an amicable agreement with the unions through the negotiation process,” it stated.

The two unions, acting jointly, were demanding increases of 7% to 12% and notified Necsa of a possible strike, if their demands were not met.

The organisation said it had already implemented a minimum wage and adjusted the basic wage of all its lowest paid employees to R100 000 a year, to improve the standard of living for its employees.

“We have [also] driven a consistent transformation agenda to ensure that we address certain historical inequalities, particularly around basic conditions of employment.

“The transformation milestones achieved thus far include growing the percentage of black technical staff to 56.02% for the quarter ended March 31, exceeding our target of 49% by a considerable margin,” Necsa added.

“While we pride ourselves with the above successes, we are also faced with challenges that threaten to undermine our upward growth trajectory,” it noted, stating it was facing declining revenue owing to gloomy domestic and international economic conditions.

“We have approached the salary negotiations with an open attitude and the interests of our employees at heart,” it added.