Reference no: EM133242159
Eskom union pickets to continue as negotiations reopen.
Trade unions at Eskom have vowed to continue with lunchtime pickets as the parties head back to the negotiating table after talks deadlocked over a wage freeze.
Crowds of workers belonging to the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) picketed on Thursday outside Megawatt Park, the power utility's head office in Sunninghill, Johannesburg. Eskom, meanwhile, in earlier statements reported several incidents of road blockades, attacks on staff, and "willful damage of electricity infrastructure" at power stations and offices.
The cash-strapped parastatal had offered a 0% wage increase to employees. The two unions demanded 15% across-the-board wage hikes. "Our demands will be supported by rolling mass action, until legal channels have been exhausted, before restoring to full-blown strike action," said NUM general secretary David Sipunzi, as he read out the memorandum of demands on Thursday.
Eskom CEO Phakamani Hadebe was booed as he signed the document. As marshals pleaded with the crowds to quiet down, Hadebe replied that the demands of workers were being considered. Negotiations would be reopened. All three major unions at the power utility, the NUM, Numsa and Solidarity, have declared a dispute at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). Workers have accused Eskom of being high-handed and arrogant during the wage talks.
1. According to the article who is the democratically elected representatives that handles the negotiations.
2. Was the bargaining process a success the first time, explain your answer.
3. What can the employer do to create some form of common ground?
4. List the three key elements of collective bargaining that is present in the article and explain by providing examples from the case study.