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Transnet signs 3-year wage agreement with UNTU

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Transnet workers affiliated with the United National Transport Union (UNTU) have accepted the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA)’s proposed 6% wage offer.

The CCMA has been mediating talks between the parastatal and its two unions.

UNTU accounts for 53,9% of bargaining unit employees at Transnet. The three-year agreement will be backdated from April this year.

In terms of the deal, workers will receive 6% in the first year, followed by 5.5% in the second year and 6% in the final year.

The wage agreement could bring to an end a 2-week strike action.

Transnet says the priority is to immediately clear up the backlog at port and rail and implementing recovery plans.

UNTU’s Cobus van Vuuren weighs in on Transnet’s three-year wage deal:

The unions were demanding between 12% and 13.5%.

‘In best interest of members’

The United National Transport Union, which is the majority union at Transnet, says signing the latest wage agreement with Transnet was in the best interest of its members and the economy.

UNTU President Steven Leshabana says he is pleased that the union also managed to negotiate a five-percent increase to the housing allowance over the next three years.

“It’s less than what we were demanding but it’s more than what the company was offering because we were demanding something around inflation or above inflation, however, we are satisfied in that we couldn’t fight anymore. Sometimes you have to stop fighting because everyone is losing in the process so we can not use our egos and continue fighting whereas the employees are going to suffer the most. So we did this in the best interest of the employees, and also in the best interest of the company and the economy at large.”

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