The National Employers’ Association of South Africa (Neasa) would on Tuesday return to the Labour Court, in Johannesburg, to argue its case as to why the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) should be prevented from requesting Labour Minister Mildred Oliphant to extend the wage settlement agreed to between 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, 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.

The court had, on September 25, granted an interim order preventing the MEIBC from approaching the Minister pending final arguments and a final decision.

However, Neasa claimed that on October 8, at a special management committee meeting of the MEIBC, another decision had been taken to request the Minister to extend the July agreement to nonparties.

Subsequently, Neasa, on October 23, filed a further application to interdict, also on an urgent basis, the MEIBC from submitting a second request to the Minister.

This second urgent application, along with the first urgent application would be argued in the Labour Court on Tuesday.