South African workers lost R133 million in wages due to strikes in 2024

South African workers lost R133 million in wages due to 114 strike actions in 2024, according to the Department of Employment and Labour.

In its recently released annual industrial action report for 2024, the department noted that although not higher than 2023, workers across affected industries lost an estimated R133m in wages due to strike action.

The wages lost in 2024 translate to 18.6% below the R163m in wages lost from 97 strike actions in 2023. The department’s data revealed that the public sector reported more strikes than the private sector.

"Through strike data analysis, the public sector recorded a significant increase in working days lost, rising from 76.9% in 2023 to 94.7% in 2024. Over half of the recorded working days lost were reported in the community, local authority, and education sectors," the report stated.

The analysis takes into account only the number of days that workers were on strike, and therefore, lost wages, rather than their entire working days.

This means that about 27,071 (78.5%) of employees lost their days of work in these sectors in 2024, and overall, the working days lost from the private sector accounted for 5.3% in 2024, compared to 23% of working days lost in 2023.

In addition, about 504,139 working days were lost in the community industry, representing 60% of the total working days lost due to work stoppages.

The manufacturing industry was the second largest with 17 strikes, making up 15% of the total work stoppages recorded in 2024, and the overall percentage of employees involved in the 2024 strike activities accounted for 4.2%, lower than 4.4% of employees who actively participated in work stoppages in 2023.

Disputes over wages, bonuses, and other compensation matters remain the main cause of strikes in the country, where the demand for wage increments (73.7%) was larger than other causes of strikes.

The report also revealed that recent data showed that workers decided to embark on strikes as half of the country’s workers earn less than R5,530 a month.

Data collected from employers in 2024 showed that the country was devastated during the winter strike season, with the community industry having been more threatened by labour actions than in the manufacturing, transport, utilities, construction, and finance industries over the same period.

The agriculture and finance industries have recorded fewer strikes, which may indicate relative stability or fewer labour relations issues leading to disputes during the same period.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za