Durban - The Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) and the SA Cotton Textile Processing Employers' Association (Sactpea) have agreed on a 5.2 percent wage increase for the cotton subsector.
Andre Kriel, Sactwu's deputy general secretary, said the union had been demanding 8 percent and the employers had offered 2.5 percent when they went into dispute three months ago.
Sactpea filed nine counterproposals, which included paying contract workers 90 percent of the minimum wage. This was rejected by the workers.
"The 12-month wage agreement, backdated to July 1, will inject at least R17 million of fresh cash into the economy over the next year," Kriel said.
The agreement, reached at the national textile bargaining council, covers almost 11 000 workers at 39 companies, including the Frame Group in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape, Da Gama in the Eastern Cape, SBH Cotton Mills in the Western Cape and Standerton Mills in Gauteng. Machine operators will now earn R14.25 an hour on average.
Walter Simeoni, Frame's managing director, said 5.2 percent was beyond the industry's affordability. "We had expected a settlement below 4.5 percent so we will have to make up the difference by further improving labour productivity." Implementation of the deal will start today and is expected to be completed next week.
Sebastian Ntshebe, a shop steward at SBH Cotton Mills, said he was happy with the agreement because it had not gone below 5 percent, which had been the union's intention.
The agreement includes a four-week annual bonus, a limitation on contract work to 10 percent of permanent employees at each company, paid time off for shop stewards to attend HIV/Aids awareness training and the establishment of on-site job grading committees to resolve grading disputes.
Employers must also pay 10c a week per employee to the union's HIV/Aids awareness campaign. The deal makes provision for a union agency shop for non-union members, a trade union office and access to fax and telephone facilities for shop stewards, as well as on-site trade union ballot facilities for any ballot under the provisions of the Labour Relations Act. The deal will be submitted to the department of labour for extension to all employers and employees in the industry.