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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) welcomes the triple defeat suffered by right-wing employers the National Employers Association of South Africa (NEASA) and the South African Engineers and Founders Association (SAEFA), at the hands of the Labour Appeals Court. The LAC has rejected an application by NEASA and SAEFA for direct access to appeal the decision of the labour court on the gazettal of the engineering main agreement. At least 400 thousand workers in the Metals and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) will benefit through increases, as a result of this decision.

NEASA and SAEFA petitioned the LAC for direct access after they were denied leave to appeal at the Labour Court. These right-wing reactionary organisations attempted to interdict the MEIBC from gazetting the 2021 Main agreement, by filing an urgent application at the Labour court in August this year. In their urgent application, they also wanted the court to interdict the Minister of Employment and Labour from extending the 2021 Main Agreement to non-party employers and employees in the metal and engineering industries. Their application was dismissed and subsequent to that, their application for leave to appeal was also dismissed.

They then tried to appeal directly to the LAC, and that has been dismissed as well. The LAC is of the view that the case has no reasonable prospects of success, and there are no compelling reasons for it to be heard. This is their third defeat and their humiliation is well-deserved!

This is officially the end of the road for this pair of selfish employers who have been attempting to manipulate and block this process through frivolous court applications. They are known for undermining collective bargaining, because they refuse to give workers what is due to them by denying them increases.

You can rest assured that workers will be mobilizing in their numbers to demand from these employers what is legally their due, and NUMSA will ensure that they get what is due to them. The days of NEASA and SAEFA members doing as they wish, in an organized industry like the metals and engineering sector, are for all intents and purposes over! This is a victory for workers and their families.

The agreements remain gazetted and it is our duty to ensure that employers comply. We will oppose ALL attempts to undermine these gazetted agreements. It has been a long battle to get to this point, and the union spent a lot of money on legal battles. At the same time, our members secured this increase through a national strike and their struggle cannot be in vain. We cannot allow any employer to get away with non-compliance.

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by NUMSA General Secretary, Irvin Jim