Hold-up over grading could derail negotiations, warns Solidarity
Solidarity, 15 July 2010

The trade union Solidarity and the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) rejected the wage offer of coal company Exxaro today. Unless the company revises its offer urgently and includes the issue of grading, which has been dragging on for the past three years, in the offer, a settlement cannot be reached, Solidarity warned.

This comes after the company made a wage offer of a 7% increase and an offer regarding the standardising of three issues during the second round of wage negotiations. Wage negotiations at Exxaro resumed today.

“At this point the company is only willing to standardise the commuting, housing and shift and standby allowances. However, the standardising of employees’ grading should also receive urgent attention, but this aspect currently does not form part of the company’s offer,” Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said.

Although the company has assured employees that the issue regarding the standardising of employees’ grading will be resolved within the next year, employees are becoming increasingly frustrated, as the process has been dragging on for about three years.

“The salaries of employees on the same job level at Exxaro Coal Mpumalanga (ECM) and Exxaro Coal (EC) differ considerably, because two different grading systems, namely the Patterson system and the JE manager system, are used at these plants, which puts employees at the Grootgeluk plant, in particular, at a disadvantage,” Kleynhans explained.

Solidarity represents approximately 1 500 members at ECM and EC.