Clothing workers continue wage strike

The national wage strike by 55,000 clothing workers is set to continue today, Monday 28 September 2009, for a ninth day after no settlement could be agreed upon, the Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers' Union (Sactwu) said.

The parties met in Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration (CCMA) facilitated conciliation in Cape Town over the weekend, "but regrettably no settlement could be found."

"The employers had regrettably not accepted the CCMA process framework proposal and this proved to be a major stumbling block towards a settlement in the discussions over the last few days," the union said.

Sactwu said that over the last few days, the employers had tabled various revised offers, which would be discussed with union members.

"A major stumbling block remains that the employers' wage increase offer is linked to workers' losing their part of their annual bonus and annual leave payments for certain forms of absence from work, to lose overtime payments for sick leave even where such leave is legitimate and a very low wage increase for non-metro area workers," SACTWU said.

The parties have agreed to a follow-up CCMA conciliation meeting to be held on Tuesday, 29 September, the union concluded.

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