Eskom humiliated again!

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) welcomes the clarification of an arbitration award by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) given yesterday after the parastatal played ignorance of the award given against it on 23 December 2011.

Eskom, which proudly refers to itself as "essential service" had taken its dispute with the NUM on the unilateral implementation of a 7% wage increase to the CCMA for compulsory arbitration. The arbitrator ruled that Eskom must increase its wage increment by an additional 1,1% retrospective from July 2011 and by 8,1% in 2012. Eskom was ordered to increase its housing allowance by R500 to R2000 a month.

The National Union of Mineworkers welcomes the arbitration decision and view such as a humiliation on the part of an arrogant parastatal that last year declared millions in profit and refused to give workers a decent increase.

The arbitrator has yesterday clarified Eskom on the matter and we now expect Eskom to backpay its workforce. The company wanted the increase to be given as from the date of the arbitration award of December 2011 of which the arbitrator has rejected and clarified in yesterday ‘s clarification ruling.

The outcome of the compulsory arbitration is binding for the duration of the wage agreement, which is two years.

Statement issued by Lesiba Seshoka, NUM national spokesperson, February 1 2012

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