Saccawu nixes Massmart group strikes to give arbitration a chance

• The South African Commercial, Catering, and Allied Workers Union is holding talks with Makro at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration.
• This comes after the union threatened to hold protests at all of Massmart's companies over the wage dispute at Makro.
• The talks have been ongoing this week and are expected to continue on Tuesday afternoon. 
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The South African Commercial, Catering, and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) have opted to suspend plans to strike at all of Massmart Group's companies over a dispute at Makro, and will attempt to seek an arbitrated solution instead.

Saccawu said last week that it would get members at five other Massmart companies to hold sympathy protests as workers at Makro continued their campaign for major wage increases at the hardware giant.

READ | Union plans to intensify Makro strike targeting Massmart group companies

But instead of a 15 000-strong protest at Game, Builders Warehouse, Rhino, Fruitspot, Shield, and Jumbo, the union has joined Makro at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation, and Arbitration (CCMA) to seek a negotiated solution to the wage impasse.

Among other things, the union is demanding an across-the-board increase of R900 or 12%, whichever is the greater, a minimum wage of R8 000, an increase to the commission on sales of 20%, and a moratorium on retrenchments.

Saccawu spokesperson Sithembele Tshwete told News24 that the union and Makro were spending much of this week in an arbitration process at the CCMA, rather than going ahead with the planned action immediately.

"We have since suspended the action pending a CCMA mediation intervention as per Section 150 of the Labour Relations Act. We however put emphasis on 'suspension' pending this process. However, if this process does not yield the required results we are going ahead with the planned action on 15 December 2022," said Tshwete.

READ | Union plans pickets at Makro warehouses on Black Friday

Massmart vice president of corporate affairs Brian Leroni told News24 that the company found it "difficult" to negotiate with a union that "appears to be stymied by internal politics and power battles".

Leroni said the company and Saccawu would hold a follow-up meeting at the CCMA on Tuesday afternoon.