STEEL INDUSTRY: Seifsa the supervillain now wants to be the hero

SEIFSA

 THE SUPERVILLAIN

NOW WANTS TO BE THE HERO

By Gerhard Papenfus
 

In a recent article published in Engineering News, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa), called for a “national disaster recovery plan” for the engineering sector.
 
According to Seifsa, the “plan” centers around a collective agreement, for which they need the support of organisations with no links whatsoever to Seifsa, which will, according to Seifsa, be the remedy for all the historical issues in the Engineering Industry.
 
Until 2021, Seifsa, controlled by the selfish interests of certain macro businesses, completely dominated the affairs of the Steel Industry. When NEASA became a party to the Metal and Engineering Industry Bargaining Council (MEIBC) just more than a decade ago, Seifsa occupied 19 employer seats on the MEIBC management committee. NEASA occupied 1 seat.
 
It was during this pre-2010 period that Seifsa made employer-hostile and unaffordable wage-deals with Numsa, which was unlawfully extended to the rest of the Steel Industry. Since 2010, tens of millions of rands in legal costs were incurred to set aside these SMME-hostile arrangements and to free the Steel Industry from the burden that the diabolical alliance of Seifsa, NUMSA, MEIBC and the Department of Labour enforced upon them.
 
Since 2010, the situation has changed entirely. Seifsa is left with 3 seats on the MEIBC management committee. The remainder of the 17 seats are taken up by NEASA, the Plastic Convertors’ Association of SA (PCASA), the Consolidated Employers Organisation (CEO) and the South African Engineers and Founders’ Association (SAEFA). Seifsa has become a marginalised and irrelevant organisation, representing a mere 10% of employers in the Steel Industry.
 
They have painted themselves into a corner and now want to portray themselves as a hero, but without the support of the other industry role-players, their plan will be a non-starter. Ironically, all they need to do is to follow the example of the above-mentioned organisations, who are looking after the interests of their members, although, it will be extremely difficult for Seifsa to do so since they have ‘priced’ themselves completely out of the market: the Seifsa-affiliated employers have to pay an unskilled, uneducated, inexperienced worker (i.e. a sweeper) R 12 000 pm. That’s outrageous!
 
Seifsa’s latest approach must also be viewed with distrust. It is no secret that Seifsa, with their marginal support representing approximately 10% of employers in the Industry, will extend any agreement that they conclude with the trade unions, should they have the opportunity to do so. The only reason they want to engage with the other organisations, is because they can no longer enforce their will, with the help of Numsa and the Department of Labour, on the SMMEs of the Industry, which, if that were to happen, would decimate the industry, causing the closure of a multitude of businesses and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.
 
It is difficult to marry this desire, to extend an unaffordable agreement, with the stated objective of saving the industry and making it competitive.
 
Seifsa should first own up to the fact that they are responsible for and complicit in the state the Industry finds itself in, and that they should rather clean up their own act first before attempting to rope in other so-called “non-affiliated” organisations; as if everything in the Industry revolves around them.

Gerhard Papenfus is the Chief Executive of the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA).

For more information:
NEASA Media Department
media@neasa.co.za