Unions get first look at Eskom’s turn-around strategy
Eskom
has confirmed it met with representatives of the National Union of Mineworkers
(NUM), National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Solidarity on
Friday to present its turn-around strategy to organised labour for the first
time.
Eskom acting spokesperson, Dikhatso Mothae, says Eskom’s Acting Group Chief Executive Officer Jabu Mabuza led the meeting and promised “to create fertile ground to allow for unions and Eskom to have mutually beneficial engagements beyond his term as GCEO".
She confirmed the meeting included government’s plan to unbundle the embattled State Owned Enterprise (SOE) into three separate entities.
Mothae says no definite timeline has been set up, while the parties also did not decide on when they will formally continue their discussions.
“We have put out what we think our timeline should be, but these dates are not definite.”
This kicks off the formal discussions over the process that has been criticised by NUMSA as an effort by government to privatise Eskom.
Unions have warned it may lead to job losses.
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The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) maintain that it is not in the interest of workers. On Tuesday Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told international news agency Bloomberg that unions would have to support reforms. Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola says the minister has not consulted with them.
Meanwhile, Mothae says they are also engaging different stakeholders to ensure that staff morale is maintained at a reasonable level.
“There are some reports already that talks to the fact that the CEO spoke to our Executive Forum on Thursday. The message to the leaders of the organisation is part of their responsibility is to get the workers back into a high performance culture,” adds Mothae.