The Buffalo City municipality and the South African Municipal Workers Union reached an agreement on Friday following a two-week strike by municipal workers.
The strike, which hampered service delivery, was reportedly over union demands for back-pay of two years as a result of delays experienced in the job evaluation process.
Buffalo City Mayor, Alfred Mtsi, released details of the agreement Friday after the second day of negotiations between the two parties and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration.
Mtsi said the municipality would pay employees their Job Evaluation Adjustment allowance of R15 000 as a once off payment.
He said, the first payment would be made within 14 days and the remaining amount would be paid at the earliest date of the next financial year. Mtsi also added, that the municipality agreed withdraw their application for an interdict with costs immediately after the trade unions called off their strike.
According to a statement from BCM, SAMWU committed to getting their members to return to work immediately.
Although the two parties reached a settlement, Mtsi explained the complexities of reaching a binding agreement.
"The complexities involved in the whole question of job evaluation is not an easy exercise, it takes into account a lot of technicalities, this reffering to more than 5000 employees and further complicating the exercise is the whole question of BCM now being elevated into a metro and affects a number of things. It affects the grading of current and new placements have to be done in respect to the grading exercise itself" he said.
Mtsi also apologised to Buffalo City residents for the inconvience caused by the strike, promising the municipality was working on catching up in backlogs, particularly with regard to refuse collection.
He also added that the municipality and unions arranged a session to strengthen their work relationship.
"It is further important to note that as part of strengthening work relations between the unions and the employer, a relationship by objective session will be arranged as recommended by the CCMA Commissioners" he said.
Mtsi also warned that the municipality would take action against workers involved in violent protest on Thursday, where protesting workers threw rubbish on public roads and brought traffic to a standstill.
He said they would investigate the damages made in the city.
"It's not all union members who conducted these acts of criminality and violence. It's certain individuals that have to be identified and there has to be to some degree a proof whether in the form of cameras, whether in the form of evidence by individuals who may have spotted some of those people" he said.
