NUMSA secures victory at cast products in Ekurhuleni

29th September 2022

NUMSA secures victory at cast products in Ekurhuleni

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) welcomes the collective agreement which was signed with Cast Products yesterday. Cast Products is a steel manufacturing company with operations in Dinwiddie, Boksburg and Benoni employing approximately 820 employees in the bargaining forum.

The company was initially planning to retrench 146 workers because it in financial distress. It is also currently under business rescue which started in February 2022.

NUMSA, through lengthy talks with the employer, has managed to negotiate for the forced job cuts to be reduced. We have also negotiated increases for the next two years for those who will remain. For the first time this agreement will also be extended to salaried staff who have not received increases for the past four years.  

The agreement is broken down as follows:

For the first year workers will receive a 6% across the board increase on the actual rates of pay and based on the gross salaries for staff. The first year increase will be backdated from the 1st of July this year and increases will be paid in full on or before the end of October 2022. The increase will be in effect until 30 June 2023.

 For the period 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 (2nd year) all employees will receive a 7% increase and the agreement will expire on June 30 2024.

The parties agree that all outstanding issues will be deferred to the 1st of April 2023.

We want to congratulate the region and head office officials for working extremely hard to negotiate this progressive agreement. When Cast Products was placed under business rescue the assumption was that many jobs would be lost. However, NUMSA successfully negotiated that there will be no forceful retrenchments, because parties have agreed to find ways to avoid forced job cuts and the employer has agreed to find ways to retain the majority of the staff. 

NUMSA negotiated with the BRP’s Refilwe Ndlovu and Johan Du Toit and this agreement is proof that working together with employers, viable solutions can be found which can benefit all parties. We continue to urge employers to work with NUMSA because we are able to negotiate solutions which can enable the company to be sustainable in the long term, without resorting to massive job cuts. 

NUMSA also managed to negotiate increases for the next two years for its members and also for non-unionized members so all workers at Cast Products will benefit from this agreement. This is why we are calling on all workers at Cast Products to join NUMSA in their numbers because we genuinely fight for improved conditions and wages for the working class. This is what drives us an organization.

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

 

Issued by NUMSA Regional Secretary Ekurhuleni Thembile Livi