National
Economy cannot afford protracted strikes: Minister─── 07:16 Thu, 17 Jul 2014
Johannesburg - Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant on Wednesday warned that the economy could not afford protracted strikes, as she sought answers on the latest impasse between Numsa and employer body Seifsa.
She wanted to know why the latest wage offer in the metalworkers strike was rejected and withdrawn.
Oliphant told reporters she was meeting both union leaders and the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) in the afternoon, in a bid to prevent the three-week strike from dragging on and damaging notably the motor industry.
"I have to meet with them so that they can explain what has happened or what went wrong, and look at possibilities of really coming to the table and finalising this issue because as a country we can't really afford a prolonged strike."
The National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) went on strike on July 1. It initially wanted a 15 percent increase, which it has subsequently reduced to 10 percent.
On Tuesday, Seifsa announced that it had withdrawn its final offer after Numsa rejected it.
Oliphant described the steel and engineering industry as "the key, critical sector" and added of the motor industry: "I think it is going to be affected very deeply, and that this is why we have to intervene as the government so that this thing can come to an end."
She added that union leaders had a duty to consult its members thoroughly and to motivate decisions.
In a barb at Amcu, she hinted that a failure to do so responsibly had dragged out the five-month platinum strike and robbed mine workers of a bigger increase than they secured in the end.
"If they agreed before they went for Easter weekend, workers would have got a higher increase than the last one."
She said the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union insisted that the offer that was on the table at that point not be made public, then turned it down after the long weekend. The response from the mining companies was to say they had been manipulated, and to withdraw the offer.
"When they finally agreed it was less than what they agreed before."
Oliphant said government was mulling a mechanism through which the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration could intervene more decisively to break labour dispute deadlocks, and believed interest arbitration could be the answer.
"We are proposing that we need to have a way of intervention by the CCMA ... particularly in arbitration where we see that maybe mediation is not succeeding.
"We said we are going to go and learn from other countries like Canada, which is using interest arbitration, and we hope that by doing so we will be able to deal with the challenges we are facing."
She blamed competition between rival unions for the increasing difficulty in settling labour disputes and said she hoped it would be possible for the platinum sector to return to centralised bargaining.
Sapa
