Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is demanding that government impose new taxes on the rich instead of increasing Eskom tariffs by 25% a year for three years.

Eskom's capital spending should be funded by, among other things, a tax on short-term capital flows, a tax on luxury and non-essential imports, and a once-off wealth tax on corporations and individuals, Cosatu demanded in a Section 77 notice filed with the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) on Thursday.

"The funding for capital expenditure must come from the fiscus," Cosatu demanded in the notice hand-delivered by secretary-general Zwelinzima Vavi to Nedlac executive director Herbert Mkhize.

"We further demand a discussion on the electricity pricing policy with the view of reviewing all provisions, like the cost-reflectivity, that hurt the poor," Cosatu said.

"We demand that government desist in its attempts to privatise electricity distribution and generation of electricity."

Cosatu also called on government not to allow any political party to invest in energy generation and distribution, "as that would lead to a conflict of interest".

It made additional demands on Eskom, the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) and business, over primarily long-term electricity supply contracts at reduced tariffs.

Mkhize said that Nedlac's first step would be to satisfy itself that the notice complied with Labour Relations Act (LRA) requirements. This was an internal process.

That done, it would, within seven days of receiving the notice, convene an initial meeting of all the parties cited to establish whether the issues raised could be resolved.

Usually, at least three meetings were convened to give a sense of whether the issues were capable of being resolved.

"The first three meetings are critical," Mkhize said.

"If we can't resolve [the problems], then we declare the matter as having been considered by Nedlac and we issue a certificate to the applicants to say if they so wish they can invoke a 14-day notice that they intend proceeding with the strike action."

Section 77 of the LRA entitles workers to participate in protest action to promote or defend their socio-economic interests.

The LRA tasks Nedlac with bringing the parties to the notice together to try and resolve the reasons for the contemplated protest action.

In the strike notice filed on Thursday, Cosatu said the workers and the poor would bear the burden of the electricity tariff increases, which seemed to have become the preferred means of funding Eskom's capital expansion programme.

It was disturbing that Nersa had awarded the increases against popular opposition, particularly as its duty was to make determinations in the public interest.

This meant not increasing tariffs in a way which would remove from the grid people denied access to electricity for many years.

The increases were expected to cost the economy 250 000 jobs and push up inflation, "further pushing workers and the poor deeper into poverty".

Cosatu said its protest action would take the form of marches, demonstrations, pickets and stay-aways directed at the departments of energy, public enterprises, trade and industry, economic development, cooperative governance and traditional affairs, and the Treasury.

Protest action would also be targeted at Business Unity South Africa, Business Leadership SA, the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Eskom and Nersa.