BRENTWOOD

2024-03-27

NUMSA and NEASA submit their proposals for the 2024 Metal and Engineering Industry’s negotiations.

NUMSA:
- Wage increase: Numsa proposes a roll-over of the main current agreement with a sweetener of improvement in the first year and with the other two years remaining the same. The wage tables in the current main agreement would cover the period of 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2026.
- Three-year agreement from 01 July 2024 until 30 June 2027.
- The new main agreement to be gazetted and extended to non-parties.
- Housing: forging a partnership between government, the private sector, industry  stakeholders  and  communities  with  the  goal  of leveraging and ring-fencing R2 -10 billion of metal industry’s pension and provident funds for housing.
- Industrial Policy: all stakeholders to urgently come together at industry level to jointly formulate a framework focused on re-building, repairing, and building public infrastructure, alleviating bottlenecks constraining economic growth while ensuring the long-term sustainability of the metals and engineering sector, which is critical to the economy.
- Additional concerns may be presented after 07 April 2024.

NEASA
The employers’ organization’s summarized proposals include:
- Exemptions:
- All employers employing less than 20 employees are to be automatically exempted from the Main Agreement.
- Exemption eligibility for financial distress includes:
- A reduction in turnover of 10% or more, between the last two trading periods;
- If the business is not in financial distress faces the prospect of financial distress due to any circumstance, a reduction in the total orders/production output of 10% or more.
- Although not trading in a loss situation, the margin of return on investment is less than the prime interest rate;
- If a company has a return on turnover of less than 8.5% after adding back all director and shareholder emoluments.
- Wages for New Entrants
- New entrant’s minimum wage to be set at approximately 47% of the current wage rates, and will apply to Grades A-H
- All future increases are to be based on the new minimums and not on actuals.
- Leave enhancement pay (bonuses) must allow for an alternative, production-based, bonus system at plant level.
- Probation employees and fixed-term employers should not be entitled to benefits for the first three months.
- Leave: The 4th week of leave for new entrants must be scrapped.
- The Basic Conditions of Employment Acts threshold for scheduled employees to be implemented to non-scheduled employees.
- Normal time: First 45 working hours per week to be paid at normal time, if agreed to at plant level by the majority of the affected employees.
- Period of agreement: 3 years.

Negotiations commence on 10 April 2024