Wage settlement for textile industry almost all complet 22-07-08

 

WAGE SETTLEMENTS FOR TEXTILE INDUSTRY ALMOST ALL COMPLETE

The Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU) has made good progress towards the settlement of this year's wage negotiations, in most parts of the industry.Of the 9 national sub-sector negotiations in the textile industry, the union has reached settlement in six (these sub-sectors are: woven cotton; carpets; woven & crochet; non-woven; hometextiles; wool & mohair).

For the remaining three national sub-sectors, negotiations are almost completed in the blanket sub-sector, remains unresolvedfor some operations in the worsted textile sub-sector and negotiations in the manufactured fibres sub-sector is only due to commence in mid-October this year.

The total labour cost increase settlements for the six sub-sectors where settlement has been reached range from 8% to 11%, with three subs-sectors settling above 10%, two settling between 9% and 10% and one settling at 8%. These six 'settled' sub-sectors cover 82% of the 20 000 textile workers covered by this year's negotiations and the implementation date for these six sub-sectors is 1st July 2008. Where settlements were reached after 1 July this year, the wage increases will be backdated.

The blankets sub-sector implementation date is on 1 August 2008 and that for the manufactured fibres sub-sector is on 1 January 2009.

The trade union is of the view that the settlements reflect a fair outcome, given the current serious difficulties experienced by the industry.

Issued by

Andre Kriel

SACTWU

Deputy General Secretary

If further comment is required, kindly contact SACTWU's National Organising Secretary, Wayne van der Rheede, on cell number 082 8007143, or alternatively, please contact our other national Organising Secretary, Chris Gina, on cell number 0829409456