Trade Union Solidarity says it is now working on whittling down its list of over 1100 skilled persons, who have offered to assist with the Eskom crisis, before handing it over to government for action.

This after the news that Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan asked Solidarity to provide a list of people with the necessary technical skills to help address the skills crisis at Eskom.

Gordhan wrote to the managing director of Solidarity, Dirk Hermann, to thank the trade union for its offer in May this year to mobilise critical skills.

Earlier this month, Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter also said he plans to bring back former artisans and engineers as mentors.

He previously said this critical skills shortage, was partly responsible for unplanned outages.

Eskom management had previously suggested bringing former employees back to the company, but the suggestion led to push-back from current employees and unions.