Unions Formally Table Wage Demands Calling for Sizeable 10% Increase

LOCAL NEWS

• Unions representing public servants formally table their wage demands and other remuneration benefits to prepare for negotiations with the government regarding employment conditions in the public sector.
  • A document summarising the demands of the various trade unions includes a 10% wage increase demand, applying to all public servants, regardless of their employment level or years in service. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-05-04...
• Public Enterprises Minister Gordhan raised the possibility of Eskom’s rolling blackouts reaching stage 8, leading to outages of up to 13 hours. This follows half of Eskom’s coal-fired generation capacity being offline.
  • He sought to fend off suggestions by the DA that Eskom be declared a ‘state of disaster’, which would enable provinces and municipalities to seek alternative sources of power. – BusinessLive
• Analyst warns that gold strikes at Sibanye could be a warm-up for a platinum sector strike with unions allegedly preparing to demand a 40% wage increase to R20k/m according to a document seen by Daily Maverick.

Data:

• 0815BST: Apr S&P Global SA PMI, 51.4 prior
• 1200BST: Mar Electricity Consumption y/y, 0.0% prior
• 1200BST: Mar Electricity production y/y, -0.3% prior