Pretoria - The three unions involved in the Eskom wage dispute are this week consulting their members on whether to accept the parastatal's revised wage offer.
"We cannot say that we have accepted it, what we can say is that it is a good offer which we are taking to our members and hopefully they will accept it," National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka told BuaNews on Monday.
Together with NUM, the other two recognised unions are the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and Solidarity.
In a statement on Sunday, Eskom said following the three days of negotiation under the auspices of the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) it decided to revise its wage and housing benefit.
The power parastatal revised the offer to a 9 percent salary increase across the board for all employees as well as a minimum housing benefit of R1 500. Originally Eskom had offered an 8.5 percent increase while workers were demanding a 9 percent increase.
Employees who are not a receiving any subsidy at the moment would receive a minimum housing benefit of R1500 a month. Employees currently receiving a subsidy on a loan, or rental or a personal housing loan, of less than R1 500 per month, will receive a top-up housing benefit to R1 500 per month.
Employees receiving a subsidy in excess of R1 500 per month will retain their current subsidy and will receive no additional payments.
Eskom is confident that the offer will be accepted by the trade unions. Seshoka said that union members would be consulted today and tomorrow, adding that it was possible that the agreement could be signed next week.
Meanwhile, Numsa will use this week to consult with its members. "We will be explaining the offer to our members for the whole of this week," said Numsa spokesperson Castro Ngobese.
