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Johannesburg - The National Employers' Association of South Africa (Neasa) said on Friday it is amused by the tactics the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) resorted to.
Neasa claims Numsa is trying to mislead the public by feeding them with misinformation.
"Now that Numsa realised it has run out of options to stop the lock-out by Neasa, it is reverting to a campaign of disseminating fabricated information," Neasa said in a statement.
"Out of sheer embarrassment after withdrawing their urgent application in the Labour Court to stop Neasa's lock-out of their members, they, in the most ludicrous manner, denied they even brought that application."
Neasa said the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) made a failed attempt to "unconstitutionally" call a meeting of the MEIBC.In Neasa's view this did not aid to assist their cause, following Neasa's urgent application in the Labour Court on August 7 2014 to stop this meeting from taking place.
"Numsa has run out of options and is, therefore, now reverting to a strategy of misinformation to hide their impotence to deal with this matter," said Neasa.
"Numsa's statement that most locked-out workers have returned to work, is, therefore, simply not true. Having said that, it has always been Neasa's position that employers participate in the lock-out on a voluntary basis and that employers have to make a business decision when considering whether or not to lock-out trade union members," said Neasa.
"The number of companies participating in the lock-out is not the point: The essence of this lock-out is that Numsa and the other unions have the responsibility towards their members, currently locked-out, to resolve Neasa's outstanding demands in order to get the lock-out lifted."
Until this has happened, the lock-out will continue,' said Neasa CEO Gerhard Papenfus.
"So far Numsa and its allies in the MEIBC have, through all kinds of tactics, tried to find a solution to the lock-out without confronting Neasa's demands," said Papenfus.
"There is, however, no alternative other than to negotiate Neasa's demands with Neasa directly. The problem will not go away and workers will not return to work until Neasa's demands are sufficiently dealt with."
