Negotiations on the 12 th July held between SEIFSA representing the 19 affiliated Employer Organisations, NUMSA, Solidarity, UASA, MEWUSA and the SAEWA at the MEIBC, facilitated by a Senior CCMA Commissioner, continued with SEIFSA tabling a conditional offer aimed at clinching an agreement for the industry.
The conditionality of the offer rest on the trade unions being able to recommend acceptance of the offer to their respective membership and the affiliated Associations likewise being able to endorse the package. All parties will report back on Wednesday, 28 July 2021 with their final mandated positions on the matter
The conditional overall package tabled today comprises of the following:

  1. Duration: 1 July 2021 until 30 June 2024.
  2. Extension: Extension of the agreement to non-party employers and employees will remain a matter that the negotiating partners will continue to apply their minds to.
  3. Wage Increases:
    1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022 The schedule wage rates contained in the Main Agreement will be adjusted on
    1 July 2021 across the board by 4,4% on scheduled/ minimum rates (the April CPI year-on-year figure released by Statistics SA) guaranteeing a personal rands/ cents increase calculated on the general wage tables awarded to employees on their actual hourly rate of pay .
    1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023
    On 1 July 2022 the scheduled wage rates will be adjusted across the board by the April CPI (year-on-year figure) as released by Statistics SA at the end of May 2022 plus a 0,5% cost of living adjustment applied across the board on the scheduled/ minimum rates guaranteeing a personal rands/ cents increase calculated on the general wage tables to employees actual hourly rate of pay.
    Issue 6

Date: 12 July 2021
Should CPI come in below 3%, 3% will be implemented across the board; should the April CPI figure come in at or above 6%, 6% will be implemented plus the 0,5% cost of living adjustment in either scenario .
1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024
On 1 July 2023 the schedule wage rates will be adjusted across the board by the April CPI (year-on-year figure) as released by Statistics SA at the end of May 2023 plus a cost of living adjustment of 1% applied across the board on
the scheduled/ minimum rates guaranteeing a personal rands/ cents increase calculated on the general wage tables to employees actual hourly rate of pay. Should CPI come in below 3%, 3% will be implemented across the board;
should the April CPI figure come in at or above 6%, 6% will be implemented plus the 1% cost of living adjustment in either scenario.

  1. Clause 37 and Full and Final Settlement: The full and final settlement clause and clause 37 protecting members from being drawn into plant level bargining remains unchanged and will remain in the Main Agreement.
  2. Modernising the Main Agreement: A bargaining council drafting committee will be constituted and tasked with modernising and configuring a new Main Agreement.
  3. Outstanding items: A number of outstanding items will be placed on the agenda of the bargaining council’s management committee with a view to agreeing on an overall and comprehensive action plan and identification of appropriate committee structure’s to deal with each item and timelines to
    finalise each item.
  4. Exemptions: Party employers will be able to submit an application for exemption in-line with clause 23 of the Main Agreement within thirty (30) days of date of signature of the Settlement Agreement. In the years two and three of the Agreement (i.e. 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023 and 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024), party employers will be able to submit their applications for exemptions in-line with clause 23 of the Main Agreement to their respective regional bargaining council offices by no later than 31 July 2022 and 31 July 2023 respectively.
  5. Special Phase-in Dispensation: A special phase-in dispensation will be made available on an entirely voluntary basis, within sixty days of signature of this settlement agreement, to employers who are currently paying below the various wages tables and are not members of any employer organisation that is a party to the main agreement, on the proviso that any such employer can prove membership of an employer organisation that is a party to this settlement agreement. The special phase-in dispensation will apply to all the wage tables contained in the Main Agreement (i.e. Electric Cable; Structural Engineering; Five Grade; Vehicle Drivers; Gate and Fence Manufacturing) but will exclude Apprentices and Annexure H.


Employers, as referred to above, who are paying at or above 60% of Rate H on the 1 July 2021 shall have ten (10) years to phase-in to 100% of Rate H. Employers who are paying below 60% of Rate H on 1 July 2021 will have 5
(five) years to phase-in to 60% of Rate H and thereafter ten (10) years to phase-in to 100% of the prevailing Rate H.
During the phase-in programme the payment of the leave enhancement pay (leave bonus) shall be paid in accordance with the applicable provisions of the Main Agreement but at the rates being earned by affected employees in each respective company. The payment for annual leave shall be made in accordance with the
applicable provisions of the Main Agreement but at rates being earned by affected employees in each respective company.
All remaining terms and conditions of employment of the Main Agreement, save for the above, including all social security benefit fund arrangements and bargaining council levies shall apply to all party employers on this scheme
with effect from 1 July 2021. Party employers paying below or at and above 60% of Rate H but less than a
100% of Rate H on the 1July 2021, shall have sixty (60) days to prepare and finalise their respective phase-in schedules and submit these, together with proof of membership of a party employer organisation, to their local regional bargaining council offices.

The bargaining council will formally and in-writing acknowledge receipt of each employers phase-in programme, record, store and monitor compliance with each respective programme. Individual employers, referred to above, who may find themselves in a position that they are unable to comply with their respective phase-in
programmes as lodged with the council, will be required to immediately notify their local bargaining council in writing and submit their revised plan and phase-in commitments in order that the council can update its database, store and properly monitor compliance with each respective programme and plan.

  1. Backdating: As long as negotiations are continuing in good faith the terms of this agreement will be backdated to 1 July 2021. Alternatively, in the event that good faith negotiations break-down backdating cannot be guaranteed.
  2. Set-off: Employers who have implemented wage increases with effect from 1 July 2021 are entitled to set-off the increases against the increases agreed upon in this Settlement Agreement.
    We will continue to keep all members fully informed as developments unfold.