SAEFA Main Agreement negotiations to continue on Wednesday
24 May 2021
The negotiations around the concluding of a Main Agreement for our members is set to continue this week with the announcement from the MEIBC that negotiations will continue on Wednesday, 26 May 2021 at 10h00. The negotiations will continue under the auspices of the MEIBC and will be facilitated by Senior CCMA Commissioner, Shamain Dadabhai.
In negotiations to date, SAEFA has made it’s position clear to both the trade unions and the other employer organisations registered with the MEIBC. Currently, the SAEFA-proposed agreement enjoy the support of all of the other employer organisations that are not affiliated to SEIFSA, as well as two that are. We are confident that further progress will be made at Wednesday’s meeting and that an agreement will be reached shortly which will provide for a set of terms and conditions of employment that are conducive to business recovery in the sector and growth in the future.
We will keep members updated in due course.
SAEFA Interview on Classic FM Tonight at 18h20
16 March 2021
Tune in to Classic FM (102.7 FM) tonight at 18h20 to hear SAEFA Executive Director, Gordon Angus, live on air with Michael Avery discussing the following:
- the history of collective bargaining in the metal industry;
- typical employer experiences in the industry wage negotiations and the negative effect of the poor quality of agreements being reached;
- the detrimental effect of the extension of these agreements on businesses in the metal industry; and
- what SAEFA has done and is doing to change the trajectory of the industry.
A podcast will be made available for anyone not able to listen in live.
Main Agreement Wage Negotiations
19 May 2021
We have received several emails and telephone calls regarding an announcement made by SEIFSA that Main Agreement negotiations are set to begin in June. As previously explained, SAEFA has been sitting at the negotiating table (together with 90% of the employers in the industry) since SEIFSA and NUMSA broke away into bilateral negotiations in 2017. When they did that, they threatened to extend their agreement on the rest of the industry. SAEFA, at the time, warned SEIFSA and the unions that they lacked the representivity levels required to legally extend their agreement and because of that, the unions must engage with us to secure an agreement conducive to business growth. Needless to say, SEIFSA and the unions ignored our warning and committed to one another to extend the agreement to the detriment of businesses in the industry. As predicted, however, they were unable to meet that commitment, as they lack the required representivity levels.
Increase in BCEA earnings threshold and National Minimum Wage
12 February 2021
The Department of Employment and Labour has published the National Minimum Wage Review and the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
Please find below the Notices for your attention. Whilst the increasing of the National Minimum Wage may have limited effect on members, the increasing of the earnings threshold in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) means that any non-scheduled employee who earns in excess of R211 596.30 per annum is excluded from sections 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17(2) and 18(3) of the BCEA with effect from 1 March 2021. For ease of reference, the headings of these sections are listed below:
SAEFA Interviewed on Classic FM
31 March 2021
SAEFA Executive Director, Gordon Angus, was interviewed by Michael Avery on the Competitiveness and Innovation feature on Classic Business (102.7 FM).
Over the course of 3 weeks the following was discussed:
- the history of collective bargaining in the metal industry;
- typical employer experiences in the industry wage negotiations and the negative effect of the poor quality of agreements being reached;
- the detrimental effect of the extension of these agreements on businesses in the metal industry; and
- what SAEFA has done and is doing to change the trajectory of the industry.
Please click on the podcasts below to listen to the interviews:
Updated Lockdown Regulations
2 February 2021
Please find a the Updated Lockdown Regulations as issued by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on 01 February 2021 below:
Gazette No 44130 Dept of Co-Operative Governance Disaster Management Act
SAEFA POPI Webinar - 7 April 2021
24 March 2021
Would you like to know what your business is required to do in order to respect personal information in compliance with Act 4 of 2013 (PoPI)?
As businesses are custodians of personal information it is essential to incorporate PoPI into their functioning. This would require meeting the thresholds contained in the Act in its dealings with the personal information of employees, suppliers, vendors and business partners. For many businesses proper compliance with the Act in this way may necessitate that its operations, policies and processes be reviewed and brought in line with the sound business practices as provided for in the Act. Should a business be found to be non-compliant, the Act imposes serious implications which should best be avoided.
The South African Engineers’ and Founders’ Association, in association with Gordon Angus and Associates will be running a webinar on Wednesday 7 April 2021 at 14h00 via the Teams platform to guide employers through the legislative requirements and business implications of PoPI.
Amended Level 3 Regulations
4 January 2021
Please see link below to an explanation of the amended Level 3 lockdown regulations. Members must please take note that it appears as though employees needing to travel to and from work outside of the curfew hours will need to possess the requisite Form 7, a copy of which is attached below:
https://www.gov.za/covid-19/about/alert-level-3-during-coronavirus-covid-19-lockdown