Workers of Denel, the state-owned arms manufacturer, picketed outside the company’s head office in Centurion on Wednesday, demanding a 7% salary increment that was agreed upon almost a year ago. 

The workers affiliated to the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) said they grew impatient with the delay in implementing the agreement, prompting them to stage the protest to pressure management into meeting their demand.

The picket coincided with a meeting between the workers’ union representatives and the company’s board members to discuss the ongoing dispute over salary increases.

Numsa spokesperson Phakamile-Hlubi Majola said Denel workers picketed outside the company’s offices in Irene, Centurion, to demand that the board implement the agreed-upon wage increase.

“Workers have been denied increases for five financial years. They were promised 7% earlier this year by the executive management, but the board withdrew that proposal and offered an inflation-based increase instead,” she said.

Union general secretary Irvin Jim said, “We are of the view that Denel is not constructive in our view in terms of giving workers what they deserve.”

He explained that the Wednesday meeting was not intended to reopen negotiations, as an agreement on a salary increase had already been reached in 2024 with the engineering sector, which Denel falls under.

“All Denel needs to do is to implement that agreement. And they are basically delaying the implementation of that. In the recent past we engaged with the management and they would have agreed that they were running out of money last year. At the beginning of this year they made a commitment of 5% plus 2% which would have taken that to 7%. From where we are sitting making our own assessment it is the board that is playing delaying tactics,” he said.

He said Numsa convened a meeting with the management and had mobilised workers to protest in support of their demand. 

He warned that if the board fails to meet the workers’ demands, the union will call for the board to be dissolved.

“We will be left with no option but to convene a meeting with the minister and part of what we will do is to call for the board that has a vision, is responsive, and is not obstructing or polarising industrial relations between workers and management,” he said.

Abel Mpe, one of the workers, lamented that many workers’ children are struggling to attend school due to unaffordability, and the lack of a salary increase for the past five years has taken a toll on worker morale.

“Management previously agreed to our 7% salary demand during negotiations with our union, but now one of the board members is taking a different stance, which is affecting our lives,” he said.

Mulalo Ramagondo, another worker, said workers have endured serious hardship at the company since the global pandemic lockdown, and the situation for them is dire and demoralising.

“We don’t know what to do. We made sure that this company is where it is today but management does not want to meet us halfway. The situation is impacting my life because right now I can’t afford things I used to afford before,” she said.

Denel’s media liaison officer, Pam Dlamini, was yet to comment on the company’s stance regarding the workers’ demand for a 7% salary increase.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za

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