BUSINESS NEWS - Trade unions representing Eskom workers are accusing the power utility’s new management of moving the goal posts for members of its bargaining unit when it comes to earning bonuses.
According to National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) spokesperson Livhuwani Mammburu, the power utility has inserted two additional requirements that its staff must meet in order to qualify for bonuses, despite having agreed in writing to the rules of the game about a year ago.
But how does Eskom determine whether its staff gets bonuses?
Moneyweb has seen a presentation Eskom made to unions in May last year that formed the basis of the agreement about the 2017/18 bonuses.
According to this document, the primary driver that determines the amount of money in the bonus pool is the group’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda).
Johan Fernandes, Solidarity full-time shop steward at Eskom, told Moneyweb that the minimum requirement for getting any bonuses was an Ebitda of R41.29 billion. Beyond that, a sliding scale applies.
Eskom reported R45.3 billion Ebitda, which according to the unions exceeds the minimum target and means bonuses should be on the table.
There are five operational modifiers, each with a weight of 20%, which could see the different Eskom divisions – generation, transmission and distribution – getting more or less of the cake.
These include the energy availability factor (EAF), which reflects the availability of generating units; the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI), which relates to distribution performance measured in hours; the performance of the transmission network; generation capacity installed and commissioned; and customer satisfaction measured by the MaxiCare system.
