State-owned power utility Eskom's refusal to provide trade unions with essential information about the group's financial statements was obstructing wage negotiations at the company, trade unions said Tuesday, when they rejected the company's 8% wage offer..

Solidarity spokesperson Jaco Kleynhans said that trade unions had requested that certain information be made available at the start of wage negotiations, but said that this had still not been done.

"Eskom is approaching the negotiations in bad faith and are not being accommodating at all," he said.

Trade unions were currently demanding a wage increase of 14% as well as a housing allowance of R5 000 a month, while Eskom is offering a wage increase of 8%.

"Workers need the 14% to be able to afford the exorbitant price of electricity. You cannot get a tariff increment of 31,33% and refuse workers an increment that should enable them to afford your high prices," National Union of Mineworkers negotiator at Eskom, Paris Mashego, said.

A strike at Eskom is, by virtue of the essential nature of the company's service and the fact that a minimum service agreement has not yet been put in place, impossible, Solidarity noted.

Eskom responded that it believed a resolution could still be found, and would be done through a constructive dialogue around the negotiation table.
Wage negotiations were originally only scheduled for three rounds, but an additional meeting has now been arranged for July 9.