NUMSA strike forces First Battery to review retrenchments

For 125 workers at First Battery’s East London plant, the retrenchment letter was blunt: a standard severance package, a fixed date, and little room for negotiations with the union. 

However, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), which represents the majority of the plant’s workforce and an IndustriALL affiliate, immediately issued a 48-hour strike notice on 2 July. Seventeen days later, on 22 July, First Battery’s owner, Metair, signed a memorandum of agreement. This document improved the terms workers had been offered and committed management to review how retrenchment selections were made.

The revised package improves the retrenchment terms. Severance rises to three weeks’ pay per completed year of service for the first six years and one week thereafter, on top of a R70 000 (US $4292) ex-gratia lump sum for every retrenched worker. Workers will remain on the books and receive full pay until 31 July. In addition, they are entitled to pro-rata bonuses, accumulated leave, long-service awards and severance pay. Metair has committed to speeding up these payments.

Two provisions reach beyond the immediate retrenchments. First, management must investigate specific grievances about how workers were selected for the cut, including the application of “last-in, first-out” principles and claims that skills-retention criteria were not done fairly. Second, should the company contemplate further job cuts after a two-month operational review, it is bound to offer any future voluntary severance process on the same improved terms as per memorandum of understanding.

The agreement also commits senior Metair leadership to a two-day workers’ indaba(conference) with NUMSA. Ideally, the meeting will take place over a weekend so as not to disrupt production. At the conference, the company will set out its strategy and hear proposals from the shop floor. There is also the possibility of an external facilitator.

With the settlement signed, NUMSA suspended the strike and workers returned to normal shifts by 23 July. Those who returned by that date qualified for a R2,000 (US$123) advance to cover transport costs. As majority representative at the plant, NUMSA’s agreement binds all affected workers as per Labour Relations Act. This applies regardless of individual union membership.

NUMSA general secretary, Irvin Jim, said the outcome is a result of collective action. 

“Through the unified, militant action of workers, combined with unwavering solidarity, together we have forced management to concede,”

he said, adding that the union “will fight relentlessly to defend and advance the interests of the working class.”

“We support NUMSA for fighting for jobs. Saving jobs is critical at this moment when South Africa’s automotive component sector is under sustained pressure from weak domestic demand, competition from imported parts and the slow pace of local value addition,”

said IndustriALL Sub-Saharan Africa regional secretary, Paule-France Ndessomin.