State-owned power company Eskom and its major contractors have set up a task team to make recommendations on dealing with strike action at its Medupi power station project, near Lephalale, in Limpopo.

The multicompany task team would deliver its first recommendations in the middle of December, Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Thursday.

In a reply to a Parliamentary question, posed by the Democratic Alliance’s Willem Faber, he said that the strikes in September had pushed back the Medupi project by three weeks, but that the operational team was looking to make up the delay.

Gigaba said that property damage related to industrial action had a limited cost to Eskom, as it was covered through insurance.

In September, about 80 workers contracted by Murray & Roberts and Grinaker-LTA damaged some vehicles and equipment at the site in a protest about labour issues.

Eskom plans to start generating power from the first of six units at the 4 764 MW Medupi station by late next year.