Union, Grand Palm settle for 6% salary increase

Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Tuesday February 9, 2016 12:52

 

The two parties have been at loggerheads since January 27, 2016 and reached an agreement last Thursday. The union had initially tabled a 15 percent salary increase across the board while the employer had countered that with six percent.

It also demanded that the employer should provide a 75 percent medical aid cover as well as introduce a 10 percent night shift allowance.

Nicholas Motiki confirmed to Mmegi that they have reached an agreement over salary increment with the employer.

“We settled for six percent because the employer was not moved on that, we had no choice.

The negotiations were finalised last week Thursday. The increase will be effected this month but backdated to January 2016,” he said.

However, Motiki said that the employer did not agree with the demand to provide a 75 percent medical aid cover as well as a 10 percent night shift allowance for its workers. He said they will continue to pursue the issues in the next negotiations as they strive for better working conditions of the workers. He also said that he is happy that an agreement has also been reached with the employer to elevate salaries of employees who have been paid below P2,000 to start them at P2,100.

“I am happy to say that they agreed to start their lowly paid staff at P2,100. We are just awaiting correspondence from their side effecting the agreement.”

At the time the salary negotiations began, the management made a unilateral decision by increasing the salaries of non-bargaining workers by six percent, a decision that did not seat well with the union.

The union claimed that the decision prejudiced the negotiations. Motiki said they have appealed to the employer not to repeat this because it tampers with negotiations.