The Labour Court, in Johannesburg, on Tuesday granted a further interim order preventing the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) from requesting Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to extend the wage settlement agreed to by the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa (Seifsa) and trade unions, in July, to nonparties.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) and five other unions had accepted Seifsa’s offer of a 10% wage increase for the lowest grades for three years; however, the National Employers Association of South Africa (Neasa) had not signed the agreement, arguing that the increase was at an “unsustainable level” and would cause the metals and engineering industry to decline even further.

“This judgment prevents the MEIBC from approaching Minister Oliphant with the request to extend the agreement which we regard as detrimental to the whole Industry,” Neasa CE Gerhard Papenfus said in a statement on Tuesday. 

The Labour Court had, on September 25, also granted an interim order to this effect.

The matter was then set to be heard on Tuesday, however, the date for arguments and a final decision had now been postponed to November 14.