Six large energy companies have asked the United Nations for help in setting up a carbon pricing scheme that would include their operations.

Can government afford to reconsider the imposition of a fee for pollution given the economic stresses that the country is currently facing?

A dispute over union membership numbers is holding up the extension of the wage agreement.

A month-long strike in the metal sector is over after a three-year deal was reached in which workers will receive pay hikes of as much as 10% a year.

The union has accepted a wage offer from employers but will continue striking over conditions relating to future pay negotiations.

The metalworkers union sees the industry’s eleventh-hour bid to link an agreement to the curtailing of factory-level demands as an act of bad faith.

The employers’ body says it hopes the industry’s bargaining council will be able to secure a wage settlement between it and employees.

Numsa has plans to intensify its strike but the organisation representing steel companies says it has no mandate to continue talking to the union.

Industry body Seifsa is said to be meeting with Numsa on Wednesday morning to discuss a wage agreement.

The balance has shifted on the bargaining body for the engineering industries and this has meant increased representation for the smaller businesses.

Six trade unions signed a three-year wage agreement on Monday, ending a nationwide engineering sector strike.

Unions have vowed to step up their nationwide strike action, with mass marches planned in Johannesburg and Durban to highlight their demands.

The metal and engineering industry just can’t afford the wage increases unionists want, says the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of SA.