Sasol Mining, the mining arm of the petrochemical giant, should offer better housing benefits to employees, trade union Solidarity insisted on Thursday.

The trade union, which this week concluded the second round of wage negotiations with Sasol Mining for employees in Secunda, said the Sasol housing plan currently being implemented only benefits new Sasol employees and not those currently employed by the company.

"Extremely dissatisfied with the benefit offered," Solidarity said and added that employees were receiving a housing allowance of between 10% and 16% of their salaries.

"The housing problem for Sasol employees in Secunda follows after Sasol sold houses for employees in the late 1990s. By the early 2000s this action led to exorbitant increases in house prices," explained Solidarity spokesman Jaco Kleynhans.

"In the meantime the growing shortage of housing in Secunda led to further price increases. The problem has now become a crisis and although Sasol has been aware of the problem for a long time, nothing has been done to alleviate it," he stressed.

The trade union is of the opinion that the uncertainty about housing in Secunda was having a significant effect on wage negotiations.

After the conclusion of the first round of negotiations Solidarity demanded an increase of 15%, but reduced its demand to 13% in the second round.

However, Sasol improved its offer by only 1% to 11% in the second round.

Although the Sasol housing problem was referred to a special forum, the Sasol Corporate Forum, two years ago, not much was done in this period and employees are still in the dark as to how and whether their housing problem will be addressed, the union pointed out.

Solidarity is the only trade union in the specific bargaining council at Sasol Mining and represents approximately 1,000 employees at the company's Secunda coalmine, most of whom are tradesmen. – I-Net Bridge

Readers' Comments
Have a comment or question about this article? Email us now..

Looking for a new home?
To find a property to buy, visit Find a Property and view listings of properties in all areas. Check out PropertySPI and get an affordable online report on actual sold prices of properties in your area.

Property News
Click here for more property news articles.

Need a blog?
Start your own blog with a free blog from 24.com.