"The NUM is extremely disappointed and saddened by the decision taken by Eskom executives to pay themselves a whopping R6 million per person from the bonus pool of R1.7 billion," the union said in a statement.

The NUM accused Eskom executives of deliberately leaking the bonus payment document to employees. The union said the move to leak the document was a crude plot to weaken it during consultation with the members.

"We call upon Eskom to secure the services of a private investigator to investigate the leaking of the bonus pool document," the NUM said.

On Thursday the union rejected an "improved wage increase offer of 7 percent" tabled by Eskom for its more than 14,000 members. Eskom employs 42,000 workers.

The NUM is demanding a 15 percent wage increase for its lowest paid members and a 13 percent hike for its highest paid staff.

In January, the Democratic Alliance (DA) registered its misgivings about the R73 million in "performance bonuses" paid to Eskom executives, considering load-shedding in the past eight years.

Eskom was propped up by a R23 billion cash injection from government last year and a R60 billion loan write-down.

The NUM said Eskom was not a "cash-strapped" state-owned company, but was in fact "profitable".

"Evidence of financial stability could be derived from Eskom advance payment of R578 million to Tegeta, a Gupta family-controlled company supplying the utility’s Arnot coal-fired facility in Mpumalanga," the NUM said.

Eskom spokesperson, Khulu Phasiwe, said he could not comment in detail as he was not aware of the NUM’s allegations.

"The issues around executive remunerations are dealt with in the annual report which is coming out next month. I cannot at this stage deny or confirm the allegations made by the NUM," Phasiwe said.

ANA