JOHANNESBURG, June (ANA) - Government and Eskom unions have agreed to resume negotiations with immediate effect and the zero percent increase proposed by Eskom is "off the table", the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said on Saturday.
Numsa met Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan on Friday, Numsa general secretary Irvin Jim said.
Also present at the meeting were the two other unions at Eskom - the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Solidarity - as well as members of the Eskom board and management.
"Last week wage talks broke down after Eskom declared a deadlock because we rejected the zero percent wage offer made by the state-owned entity. The minister arranged the meeting in an attempt to resolve the impasse between us and Eskom management," Jim said.
At the meeting all parties agreed to resume negotiations with immediate effect. It was agreed that the zero percent offer from Eskom was off the table.
"We agreed that without demobilising we shall normalise the situation and give negotiations a chance which will resume this coming Tuesday, [and] to engage in key issues that impact on the future sustainability of Eskom such as coal costs, the impact of policy including IPPs [independent power producers], the cost of primary coal, the bloated top executive structure of Eskom management which is costly, and the building of trustworthy relationships between the parties as part of the process post-negotiations," Jim said.
Numsa viewed the agreed process of engagement as necessary in resolving the dispute between the unions and Eskom management and laying the grounds for the negotiations to continue.
"We are ready to engage meaningfully with Eskom on our demands, as has been our attitude from the beginning of the negotiations. We acknowledge that the minister has facilitated to allow the process to move forward, Jim said.
- African News Agency (ANA)
