Tuesday, December 02, 2014

South African Labor Federation Wins Major Court Case

“This is an important victory in Cosatu’s campaign to defend and extend collective bargaining,” Congress of SA Trade Unions spokesman Patrick Craven said in a statement.

The National Employers’ Association of SA (Neasa) lost a court application on Monday, which formed part of its bid to stop the extension of a wage agreement to other unions.

Neasa wanted the Labour Court to prevent the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Councilfrom asking the labour minister to extend an agreement reached between the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA (Seifsa) and trade unions in July to those who were not party to that agreement.

Seifsa signed the agreement on July 29 on behalf of the 24 federated associations and two associations that were still involved in internal mandating processes.

In terms of the three-year agreement workers would get increases of between eight and 10 percent in the first year, 7.5 to 10 percent in the second year, and seven to 10 percent in the third year.

Neasa members wanted a standardised entry-level wage and a revamped exemptions policy. It offered an eight percent across-the-board salary increase.

Neasa said on Monday it would study the judgment and likely approach the Labour Appeal Court.

- Sapa

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