- Unions' current wage demands are unaffordable and would add 30% to Eskom's R33 billion wage and benefits bill, the power utility says.
- Eskom is scheduled to continue talks with three unions for the next month in hopes of settling on a new three-year wage deal.
- Unions, however, believe their demands - which include a housing allowance hike and work from home allowance - are achievable.
Eskom has tried to temper expectations of major wage increases as negotiations with unions kicked off this week. But the unions are not backing down.
The cash-strapped power utility is in talks with National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and Solidarity for a new three-year wage deal.
The NUM and NUMSA are both demanding a 15% wage increase, while Solidarity has asked for a 9.5% increase.
The three unions have also made a number of other demands on the power producer. The NUM is calling for housing allowance hike from R3 500 to R7 000, Solidarity is asking for a work-from-home allowance of R1 000, while NUMSA wants the agreement to be for one year and not three years.
'Unaffordable'
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said on Wednesday that the utility has asked unions to revise down their wage demands.
"Unions have placed demands on Eskom that, as they stand today, if they were to be accepted, would add an additional 30% to the more than R33 billion in employee benefits and wages that Eskom paid in the year ended March 2020."
Current demands, he said, are "clearly unaffordable".
But NUM said its demands are "reasonable and achievable."
"There is money in Eskom and the money is being used to fund corrupt activities. That money is the labour of our members," it posted on Twitter on Wednesday.
"NUM has mandated the negotiating team to go all out and negotiate for good wages and the team would not back down on representing workers' demand for a 15% wage increase".
Talks are set to continue for a month.