Workers await offer as CCMA gives PRASA 60-Day deadline

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) has given the Passenger Rail Agency (Prasa) 60 days to present a wage offer to the workers.

Currently, the employer has refused to present any salary offer due to financial challenges. This prompted labour unions Satawu and UNTU to take the employer to the CCMA to bridge a wage impasse.

The workers are demanding a 15% across-the-board wage increase for 2025/26, and the employer is at 0%. The United National Transport Union (UNTU) is the majority union at Prasa and says they are now pinning their hopes on the CCMA process.

“This process should have commenced in October 2024, according to the rules of engagement. But unfortunately, we found ourselves at the CCMA. The CCMA did grant the management a 30-day extension for them to go back to their principals and to get a mandate. However, the CCMA did break this process to a 60-day process. So, you have your 30 days where management will go back to the principles, get amended and also look at the financial position. After that we will have 15 days where we go back to the PRASA bargaining forum, where we try to see if management and labor can find each other,” says UNTU spokesperson Atenkosi Plaatjie.

Additional reporting Tshepo Mongoai