Trade union Solidarity officially declared a dispute with the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC). The trade union believes this bargaining council is taking unilateral and unlawful decisions that undermine its own constitution, labour legislation and sound collective bargaining to the detriment of the industry.

Moreover, the MEIBC’s Manco on 3 February this year resolved that two collective agreements must be concluded with respect to bargaining levies payable to the council for costs concerning administration and dispute resolution. The collective agreements would then have been submitted to the Minister of Labour for expansion within the industry.

According to Solidarity, the collective agreements have not been negotiated and have been selectively signed only by certain parties in the Bargaining Council before it was submitted to the minister. Bargaining Council officials have not given Solidarity any opportunity to sign the agreements.

Solidarity Metal and Engineering Industry Head Marius Croucamp explained that the Council’s constitution stipulates that all participating parties must consent to the submission of such applications and must sign collective agreements. “Solidarity is a full participating member of the MEIBC. It appears as if we have been excluded from the decision on the application in an intentional and pernicious way,” Croucamp said.

According to Croucamp, Solidarity is insisting that a special Manco meeting be held as a matter of urgency at which Solidarity could raise its objections. “The Bargaining Council is supposed to act in the best interests of the industry. At the moment, there is discord among industry players and the Council’s disregard for its own constitution is fuelling it on. We want to prevent our members and the industry from suffering in the long term as a result and we want to prevent that such malpractices further destroy sound collective bargaining,” Croucamp said.

In December last year, the Minister of Labour expanded the wage agreement for 2014 to 2017 to non-participating parties in the industry, leading to major dissatisfaction among several industry players. According to Croucamp, the Bargaining Council submitted the wage agreement providing for increases of between 8% and 10% for workers in the industry to the Minister of Labour in the same unlawful manner.

Many employers are in the process of approaching the Labour Court in a bid to declare the agreement invalid. Moreover, the Labour Court recently declared the previous wage agreement (for 2012 to 2014 that was also expanded by the minister) invalid on the grounds of similar irregularities.

Issued by Solidarity