The South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC) management and media workers union, the Communication Workers Union (CWU) have reached a wage settlement.

The union and the public broadcaster have agreed to an 8.5% across the board increase for members inside the bargaining unit.
It was a final agreement after protracted negotiations.

Employees will receive an 8.5% increase, backdated to April and a further R1500 once off payment, tax free, to all employees.

“As the SABC we are very happy that we have shown that we have a good relationship with our unions. There are many stakeholders at the SABC and we cannot achieve the strategy that we are looking to achieve if the unions are not on board and if the workers are unhappy,” says SABC Chief Operations Officer, Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

He says that he is happy that an agreement has been reached.

CWU chief negotiator Macvicar Dyasopu says, “We have finally arrived at an amicable settlement after protracted negotiations. Our desired outcome was 10% and we realised that we are miles apart from management who were offering 6.5% but through skillful negotiations we managed to arrive at a middle ground.”

He says that the agreement of 8.5% with a sweetener of R1500 non-taxable once-off was amicable.

“Basically any negotiations are characterised by a give and take process. It is characterised by compromises and as such we as labour will never say we are happy that we have arrived at 8.5% but it is something we can live with considering the current prevailing conditions on the ground,” he added.

On Tuesday, trade union Bemawu signed the wage deal.
Source: http://www.sabc.co.za