Numsa demands 15% wage hike from state-owned manufacturer

Members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) at arms manufacturer Denel are demanding a 15% wage increase. This is after they received only two salary increases in the last five years.

Workers picketed at Denel’s headquarters in Centurion, Gauteng, on Thursday in an attempt to get the management of the state-owned enterprise (SOE) to give in to their demand.

Numsa says workers at Denel have suffered severely because of destructive cost-cutting measures by the SOE’s management and government.

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No compromise

Numsa’s Deputy General Secretary Mbuso Ngubane, while addressing tens of members of the trade union, said workers will not compromise on the 15% demand. “They have already made far too many sacrifices in order to save the company.”

Handing over the memorandum to the management of the entity, he said it was clear that their demands were already compromised and that they were not prepared to make any more compromises.

“If we go back to the past five years and check how much you are owning us, you will see that what we are demanding is nothing.

No negotiating

He said they do not want to receive feedback from the management that says they are willing to negotiate with workers. They are expecting Denel to be understanding without any delays.

He added that the cruel conditions that workers had been subjected to were due to government’s desire to privatise Denel.

“The government of national unity (GNU) is continuing along the same vein. Workers at Denel have been exposed to very painful salary cutbacks which have left many of them financially and psychologically devasted.”

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The collapse of Denel

Ngubane alleges that the late former minister Parvin Gordhan collapsed the entity on behalf of the African National Congress.

Denel is among 27 SOEs that racked up R69.3 billion in irregular expenditure over the past five years, and R163 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the period under review, as reported by Business Day.

Good-faith process

Denel spokesperson, Pam Malinda said they have granted Numsa members to demonstrate their unhappiness in terms of normal engagement protocols.

“This is a good-faith process between the parties with an expected duration of two hours, after which employees will revert to their workplaces.”

“The board and management continue to work to stabilise the financial position and grow the company for our country. Management will continue to engage with all stakeholders.” 

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