ABI last night welcomed the end to the dispute which had been marred by violence.
“We are most pleased that we have reached an agreement with Fawu which ends the strike at ABI,” said ABI MD John Ustas.
“We will now focus on welcoming those employees who went on strike back to work, ensuring that we fully normalise our operations and developing our future relationship with the union.”
Employees who had been on strike are expected to return to work by tomorrow and those who continue to stay away from work “will be participating in an unprotected strike”, ABI said in a statement.
The deal comes after lengthy negotiations between ABI and Fawu, with the final wage and benefits offer made by ABI before the strike began in December now accepted.
The agreement would see wages and benefits at ABI increase by a total of 8.3% which compares favourably with packages offered by other companies in the industry, and is well above the current inflation rate of 5.8%, ABI said.
Fawu had demanded an across the-board wage increase of 9.5%.
Last night the union could not be reached for comment.
ABI said the minimum wage would increase to R7235 a month which was an across-the-board increase of 7.8%. Agreement was also reached on increases to education grants, Christmas vouchers and cellphone allowances.
The company said there was an “acceptance of the principle” to work 45 hours in the week and work on weekends would be paid overtime.
The parties have also agreed to discuss issues about labour brokers and owner drivers at a high-level meeting to be convened before the end of next month. The issue of an agency shop will be referred to a separate process before then.
Workers alleged to have committed acts of misconduct which may result in dismissal would be suspended with pay pending the outcome of their disciplinary inquiry, the company said.
Source: Business Day
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