South Africa: Blackouts hit pay packets

The nationwide power cuts are costing workers income, as companies are forced to adjust their shift and working hours.

Unions are in talks with about 500 companies in the Western Cape seeking to change members’ working hours to shift their employers’ electricity demand to off-peak hours.


Many companies have already restructured shifts, sending employees home during load-shedding, and devised plans to pay for hours worked.

In a statement sent to employers on Tuesday, the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (Seifsa) recommended that managements should pay workers for a minimum of four hours if they were forced to send them home due to power cuts.

IOL