The South African Reward Association (SARA) shapes the industry and professionals that determine how people are paid or rewarded for the work they do.
This comes after Cosatu said it would encourage its member unions to balance wage demands with the need to preserve jobs when salary negotiations in their industries begin.
Unions affiliated to Cosatu would be heading to wage negotiations this year, including in the contested gold and platinum industry, as well as for civil servants such as teachers and health workers.
The mining sector alone has shed more than 35,000 jobs since 2012 as commodity prices have slid over the last few years, caused largely by declining demand from China.
In an interview with Bloomberg last week, Cosatu general-secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said the federation did not want unions to negotiate increases that resulted in workers being retrenched and "only a few remain to enjoy the benefits of that particular increase".
Responding to reports that Cosatu would encourage its member unions to balance wage demands with job security, SARA exco member Mark Bussin said in a statement that this was a great step in the right direction.
"Executives and management could match this statement by showing pay increase restraint for themselves and articulating concisely what was achieved to earn bonuses," Bussin said.
"We need to strengthen the link for the average person to believe in the concept of bonuses."
Protracted industrial action due to deadlock in wage negotiations is not uncommon in South Africa.
In January 2014, the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (Amcu) launched a five-month strike in Rustenburg’s platinum mines in one of the longest strike in years, that affected Lonmin, Amplats, and Impala Platinum.
Earlier this year, Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane said protracted strikes destroyed the country’s economy.
– African News Agency (ANA)
