Transnet has declared force majeure at its ports on Thursday, according to a document seen by Reuters, as workers began an open-ended strike over wages.

A force majeure means that, because of events outside a company’s control, it cannot meet its contractual obligations to customers and clients.

Transnet noted that the strike was illegal, and followed non-resolution in the ongoing
wage negotiations.

In a statement Thursday, Transnet said it had made concerted efforts by improving its wage offer a further four occasions, in spite of the operational and financial challenges facing the organisation, understanding fully the impact any strike action would have on employees, industry and the economy.

Any strike action taking place presently is illegal and unprotected, as one of its unions, the United National Transport Union (UNTU) has not followed the prescripts as set down in the Labour Relations Act prior to embarking on strike.

Transnet says its primary focus remains to avoid mass industrial action, as this will have a profound impact on economic activity across all sectors, and it has urged workers to consider the long-term consequences of the strike.

The State Owned Company has offered a wage increase of between 3% and 4%, and an ex-gratia payment of R5000 (before tax) to all employees.

The discussions have unfortunately not yielded an agreement, with union UNTU arguing the offer is far below the rate of inflation of 7.6%.

UNTU says the offer is not aligned with the mandates that they have received from members and as such will not be formally subjected to the formal mandating process for acceptance or rejection by the members.

Staff have been informed that the principle of no work-no pay shall be enforced.

But UNTU said it had requested the Transnet Bargaining Council on 20 September 2022 to initiate the process of establishing picketing rules, but they failed to initiate this process and failed to establish these picketing rules by 23 September 2022 as requested.

The Union has also accused Transnet of trying to intimidate workers by declaring the strike illegal.

Satawu members are set to join the strike from Monday.