Photo: Gallo Images/Darren Stewart
Thousands of Makro employees embarked on a nationwide strike on Wednesday after ongoing wage disputes couldn’t be resolved.
Employees affiliated with the South African Commercial, Catering, and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) now demand results, after four months of wage negotiations.
The workers say they demand a 12% wage increase, and the union rejected Makro’s counteroffer of 4.5%, saying it “will not sustain workers”.
Saccawu spokesperson Sithembele Tshwete said employees and their families would struggle to meet “even the basic household needs” with a 4.5% increase.
“This attitude by the company despite rising inflation, transport and energy costs. The company resolves to remain intransigent.”
Makro said the “12% wage increase and increasing sales commission from 10% to 20% both of which are intuitively unrealistic”.
Saccawu said more than 5 000 Makro employees would join the strike.
Makro said in a statement to The Citizen: “We can confirm that Makro was advised on 24 October of Saccawu’s intention to embark on a three-day strike at our stores.
“It should be noted that this decision has been taken unilaterally by the union in the absence of their conducting strike ballots across the Makro store base.
“This approach is consistent with our impression that the union has been negotiating in bad faith.”
According to Makro, strike ballots had reportedly been conducted at six stores on Monday, 24 October, and three stores “voted against strike action”.
As per Makro’s statement: “At one particular store, just 7% of staff voted to strike.”
Makro said all stores are operating, despite the strike, and no disruption to normal store trading activity is anticipated.
“Makro has implemented strike contingency plans, which include deploying temporary employees who have been trained in our store processes.”
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