SEIFSA and NUMSA conclude Historic Agreement in record time
After three formal engagements SEIFSA and NUMSA have concluded the terms of a historic three-year wage agreement for the period 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2027.
Following a bruising round of wage negotiations in 2021 which peaked in a three-week strike costing the industry in excess of R600 million rand per day in lost revenue, this year’s agreement was reached in record time, with no industry disruption and within mandate.
The SEIFSA affiliated membership which accounts for 57% of all employees, employed by all the employer organizations on the bargaining council and NUMSA representing in excess of 115 000 members signed the agreement today at the Birchwood Conference Centre in Boksburg.
“This agreement is a testament to the commitment by the social partners to seek a settlement as soon as possible and with minimal disruption,” said Mr. Trentini.
The agreement was reached on the foundation laid by the signing of a process agreement by all the parties prior to the commencement of the negotiations – this strategic innovative approach was also in itself an unprecedented event.
‘’The process agreement set the road-map to settlement, a pledge to negotiate in good faith, outlined the context, tone and architecture of the negotiations,” said Mr. Trentini.
This year’s agreement, as was the case in 2021, prescribes wage increases to be calculated on the scheduled or gazetted minimum rates of pay per grade over the next three years. Rate A in year 1 will receive 6%; Rate H 7% and in years two and three of the agreement, Rate A will receive 5% and Rate H 6% respectively.
Apart from wage increases and this year’s agreement being reached almost two months before the expiry of the current agreement – again an unprecedented feat (in 2021 agreement was reached in October), the deal contains no additional and/or immediate cost to employment concessions. Importantly however, the exemption and special phase-in exemption dispensation for employers who feel that a degree of relief from the agreement is required is retained. This is in direct response and a clear acknowledgement by the parties to also cater for SMME’s, their challenges, dynamics and sustainability.
“Of historical importance is the commitment by the parties to meaningfully address access to housing for industry workers,” Mr. Trentini said.
The parties have agreed to request the Board of Trustees of the Metals and Engineering Industries Benefit Funds, who oversee investments under management in excess of R149 billion, to develop an institutional framework, covering amongst other, eligibility and legal criteria, funding model/s, subsidy mechanisms and/or programmes and substantive policy approaches within three (3) months of the signing this agreement.
In addition, “stakeholders have agreed to convene and jointly formulate an industrial policy framework focused on re-building and repairing public infrastructure, alleviating bottlenecks constraining economic growth while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the metals and engineering sector,” said Mr. Trentini.
Finally, a number of outstanding issues have been identified and referred to various working groups and committees for further investigation, discussion and processing.
“SEIFSA applauds the trade unions for staying the course and living the bold, courage’s and ambitious goals and objectives embodied in the process agreement,” said Mr. Trentini.
“Three decades into our democracy it is heartening to witness that it is indeed possible for negotiating partners, in the heat of robust and adversarial collective bargaining to put the interests of the metals and engineering sector – and, indeed, the interests of our country – first,” Mr. Trentini said.
Employers must drive implementation of the Steel Master Plan, says SEIFSA
The pivotal role that employers must play in ensuring the objectives of the Steel Master Plan become a reality was highlighted at the Steel and Engineering Federation of Southern Africa’s (SEIFSA’s) Mainstreaming the Steel Master Plan Conference on May 19 and 20.
This is the view of SEIFSA CEO Lucio Trentini, who said that everyone who attended the conference – captains of industry, senior member of government and union leaders must stand together in wanting the Steel Master Plan to succeed, though employers have a particularly important role to play.
Furthermore, as a body representing employers in the steel industry - both upstream and downstream – SEIFSA, through its eighteen Employer Associations, is best positioned to ensure the objectives of the plan are met. Trentini said a lot was riding on the SMP and neither government, business nor labour could expect to do it on their own.
“SEIFSA’s associated employer membership employs the vast majority of employees in the sector and has a long-established track-record of successfully representing the interests of its membership. Hence, SEIFSA is ideally placed to champion the aspirations of the Steel Master Plan,” said Trentini.
While the conference heard about many of the SMP’s early wins since it was signed in June 2021, stakeholders expressed their impatience with the lack of implementation.
SEIFSA COO Tafadzwa Chibanguza said the discussions about the SMP at the conference have shown the important role industry can play in making public-private partnerships work. The SMP represents a collaborative approach with stakeholders working together in pursuit of agreed end objectives, he said.
Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel also emphasised the importance of partnership. He said that building a sustainable path involved business, labour and government all understanding that for the plan to work, difficult choices and sometimes compromises would need to be made. The focus needed to be on partnership and working together, rather than any party expecting their demands to be met in absolute terms.
Ensuing that more can be done in the months ahead, Patel said his department was committed to reducing red tape in internal processes. SEIFSA has also identified this as an opportunity for collaborative efforts where the private sector can contribute to identifying areas where red tape is unnecessarily hindering progress, especially in areas that may be a blind-spot for the state.
“The Steel Master Plan Conference was a successful two-day event, with participants leaving with a renewed appreciation of the plan and, importantly, the work that needs to be done.” said Trentini.
“In championing the Metals and Engineering Sector recovery and growth, SEIFSA will avail itself to working collaboratively with all like-minded employer bodies,’’ Trentini said.
SEIFSA is working on a comprehensive report of the conference proceedings.
Energy crisis is symptom of policy failure, and only reform will solve it
When analysing South Africa’s energy crisis, it is pointless to rehash how we got to this point. We know that the state ignored the warnings that electricity was running out, that maintenance was not done, that the grid has deteriorated to the point of near collapse, that corruption was allowed to run rampant and so on and so on ad-nauseam. What is needed now is focus on what can be done to finally begin addressing the problem.
The two most glaring issues that the energy supply industry (ESI) faces are the above-inflation-rate increases in electricity tariffs and the ever-present rounds of load-shedding due to the severe lack of capacity. We tend to equate the energy problem with Eskom but when viewing it from the broader ESI perspective and the roles played by the Department of Mineral Resources & Energy (DMRE), the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), municipalities and the Independent Power Producers (IPPs), we see that Eskom is just one part of a much wider ecosystem and for things to get better we need more harmony between and among all these moving components.
South Africa has an energy shortfall of 4,000MW, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), and this potentially represents a ready market for the private sector to invest in to the benefit of all.
As Eskom has stated repeatedly, it simply implements the policy set by the DMRE, it is the state, and only the state, that can facilitate the inclusion and participation of the private sector.
There are essentially two solutions to the crisis, which are not either/or options. One is what needs to be done in the immediate short term, the other what needs to be done in the longer term.
The immediate solution would be for the DMRE to put the 4000MW out for bid on Bid Window 7. The department has tended to cap how much capacity can be bid for but suppliers typically bid for more. In the last bid window 9,000MW were bid for – more than double the shortfall - most of it coming from renewable energy providers, however, the department only procured 2,583MW.
The Renewable Independent Power Producer Programme (REIPPP), which the DMRE developed in 2011, was intended to bring additional megawatts onto the grid through private-sector investment in wind, hydro and other sources of energy.
In April the DMRE called for proposals under Bid Window 6, which is looking to secure another 2,600MW of renewable energy (1,600MW of onshore wind and 1,000MW of solar photovoltaic) – approximately half of the 4,000MW shortfall.
The Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which maps out South Africa’s energy demand and the least cost energy mix to meet that demand, while also charting a roadmap of South Africa’s planned transition from coal to cleaner energy sources as part of the international commitment to reduce greenhouse gases and decrease carbon emissions, has been criticised for being too soft on coal. But there are indications that the government is willing to revise it. Forestry, Fisheries and Environmental Affairs Minister Barbara Creecy told MPs in Parliament in March that Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe “has indicated to the climate commission that he is open to receiving presentations on revisions on the IRP, which obviously could be necessary if we are to achieve the lower limit of our nationally determined contribution (NDC)”. Given the rate at which renewable energy prices have dropped since 2011 and with the downward trajectory only anticipated to intensify, a much faster adoption of renewable energy projects has the potential to be environmentally friendly, while also limiting tariff inflation.
The longer-term solution is expediting the unbundling of Eskom to create an independent transmission company that will buy electricity from the market, including from state-owned Eskom and various IPPs, to sell to consumers. This ensures a bigger role for the private sector in the production of electricity, creating a competitive market that can make a real dent in tariff increases as well as increasing capacity, so that load-shedding eventually is phased out.
Eskom will play a smaller but still-relevant role – as one of the providers of electricity for the country, though it will need to improve its efficiency significantly to remain relevant and competitive.
There are five main benefits to this framework:
- Eskom is not killed off, but still has a role to play.
- Competition acts as a disciplining force on prices. We all want the cheapest energy, so players will need to keep up to date with new technologies to stay ahead of the pack and win over consumers.
- Customers can choose the type of energy they want; this is especially good news for companies that can reduce their carbon footprint by using only renewable energy and in turn allow their products to capture premiums on the international market.
- Companies can limit the penalties they have to pay on their products in certain regions for high-carbon usage. The EU, for example, has announced a carbon adjustment mechanism, where products will carry a penalty for high carbon usage, making them more expensive and therefore less competitive.
- The end user will benefit through market-determined tariffs and better-quality service.
Neither of these solutions are out of the realm of possibility and both would make big changes to the ESI, South Africa’s battle-scarred economy, our attractiveness to foreign investors and the everyday life of all South Africans.
But the reality is that the energy landscape is very much at the mercy of our elected politicians. It is unacceptable for South Africans to endure the current electricity crisis and ongoing bouts of loadshedding. Government needs to do and be seen to be doing everything in its power to ensure that this crisis, like state capture, becomes a thing of the past.
Important announcement: SMP conference venue change
Due to the Minister of Health extending the government’s coronavirus transitional rules at midnight for a further three-months, we unfortunately have had to find an alternative venue to accommodate the numbers we expect at the Conference.
Seating at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) under the status quo is limited to 60 which unfortunately is not suitable. We have been able to confirm an alternative venue, Emperors Palace, Kempton Park which we are confident will be able to accommodate all expected delegates.
In their practical effect, the extension of the transitional rules, means that masking for indoor public spaces and restrictions on indoor gatherings remain unchanged. As before, all gatherings are limited to 50% of normal occupancy and no more than 1,000 people may gather indoors unless proof of vaccination or a coronavirus test result is checked on entry.
We have confirmed with the venue and in anticipation that we will not breach 1,000 delegates neither will be required on registration.
Thank you for your understanding and our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Nuraan Alli
MSC Executive