The largest trade union within arms manufacturer Denel, UASA, this week announced that discussions about the restructuring process at Denel have ended in deadlock.

According to UASA's general manager responsible for Denel, Manie de Kock, the most important points of dispute are the handling of the restructuring process, unilateral changes to employees' conditions of service, and disregard for the guidelines of the Restructuring and Transformation Central Committee Agreement.

In terms of the National Framework Agreement, the deadlock over the restructuring process has to be referred to a committee of six ministers under the leadership of Public Enterprises Minister Jeff Radebe.

No changes can be made to conditions of service until the committee has met.

Other points of dispute are: the breach of agreements concerning labour brokers; salary increases not paid as per agreement; and the intended abolition of the social plan.

De Kock said UASA would take further steps in terms of the Labour Relations Act if the dispute is not resolved at ministerial level.

He is hoping, however, that solutions will be found as soon as possible because South Africa and Denel cannot afford labour action.

Meanwhile, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) and the union Solidarity have given Denel seven days to comply with the demands of workers.

In a joint statement, they said the workers were "in revolt" after Denel refused to implement agreements that were reached earlier. One of those agreements is for a 9,5 percent salary increase for workers.

On Friday, Solidarity moved to have the dispute over the agreement taken for arbitration.

According to the unions' plan of action, workers will start to mobilise for a protest on Tuesday.

Solidarity and Numsa will also give an ultimatum to management to meet union representatives by next Thursday in order to resolve the dispute.

Solidarity spokesperson Dirk Hermann said the unions would proceed with protest action if management fails to give a commitment to the agreements or refuses to deal with the workers' grievances.

The trade unions are also asking for a high-level meeting between Radebe, the board of directors of Denel, and the secretary-generals of the unions.

According to Hermann, the unions are unhappy with action taken by the newly appointed human resources director of Denel, Eugene Martin.

"Since his appointment, Martin has ignored all policies that were created by management, the unions and the government.

"In 1998 these parties formed the Restructuring and Transformation Central Committee (RTCC), through which the restructuring of Denel would take place, and policies were formulated. Martin wiped some of the policies from the table.

"Now up to 4 000 employees of Denel may lose their jobs because an agreement, through which workers would be contracted by Denel Personnel Services, was ignored," said Hermann.

The trade unions had asked management during a meeting to stop the restructuring process and lay-offs at Denel, he said.

Hermann added that Denel decided on its own to go ahead with the restructuring, ignoring agreements reached in the restructuring and transformation committee.

With acknowledgements to the Business Reporter and the City Press.