Eskom has declared a dispute with the unions in the wage increase talks and referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Eskom argued yesterday that the wage increase demands, of between 9.5% and 12%, by the unions are unaffordable and unreasonable.
The power utility had stuck to its initial salary increase offer at the negotiations which were taking place in Sandton before declaring a dispute yesterday.
The parties will now await a date from the CCMA, a dispute resolution mechanism available for the central bargaining forum, on when the mediation would take place.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) had revised its initial 15% wage increase demand to 10% while the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) had dropped to 12% with Solidarity asking for 9.5%.
This was in response to Eskom's 1.5% offer tabled with downscaling conditions of employment.
NUM's energy sector coordinator Khangela Baloyi said they viewed Eskom's declaration of a dispute as equivalent to a "declaration of war".
"Eskom is refusing to bargain because we are only on the first day of round three which means we have to finish the negotiations at the CCMA; we saw this already that they wanted to collapse these negotiations," Baloyi said.
He said NUM will revert back to its initial demands of a 15% wage increase in addition to an additional R1,500 increase on the housing allowance to push it to R5,000 per employee.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said they will be awaiting the date from the CCMA, but disputed Eskom's version that the demands were unaffordable.
"They claim that our demands are unaffordable, that's a boldface lie, because on what basis are they making that assessment because Nersa in its last determination said that Eskom should allocate to workers a minimum of 5.4% increase," Hlubi-Majola said.
She said Eskom had essentially stolen from funds meant for workers to pay coal suppliers.
"Eskom has ignored that Nersa directive and went to give 15% or more to coal companies and has the audacity to tell the public and workers that it can only afford 1.5%," she said.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Manthantsha said the power utility confirmed that “their final offer is a 1,5% increase in the basic salary, conditional on the unions accepting certain variations in some identified benefits of employees.
“The unions have rejected this, and instead placed demands for basic salary increases of 10%, 12% and 9,5%. This in addition to other demands for the increases of an average 15%in the benefits enjoyed by the employees," he said.
He said Eskom “relied on taxpayer cash bailouts to maintain its going concern status and has clearly demonstrated these demands are unaffordable.”
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