Johannesburg — RAIL commuters hoping for normal service to resume will have to wait longer after a trade union representing striking workers changed its pay demand yesterday, the Passenger rail Agency of SA (Prasa) said.

The acting CEO of Prasa, Tumisang Kgaboesele, said late yesterday afternoon that the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) had decided not to accept the company's improved offer of a 10% pay increase. Workers at Prasa have been on strike since Monday, represented by Satawu and the United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu).

About 2-million commuters are affected by the strike.

Describing negotiations, Kgaboesele said yesterday: "The meeting is still to get under way. Indications are that talks will collapse. There is a high probability that we will announce a unilateral implementation (of Prasa's pay offer)".

This contradicted Satawu's general secretary Zenzo Mahlangu, who said the unions were "just tying up loose ends and waiting for a few more members to communicate if they would take the offer or not. So far, most have said yes," he said.

Yesterday morning, Kgaboesele had said: "We've reached an agreement on all the terms. The unions now have to go and get the mandate from their members."

Later he sent an SMS reading: "New Demand - 13%".

In the other transport strike, Utatu said negotiations with Transnet had taken an "ugly twist" after it was informed it could not sign a wage offer yesterday until Satawu had indicated its position on the offer. "What we thought could have been good news for SA has now been stopped. It is difficult to understand why management is refusing to meet us when we are ready to sign the agreement," said Utatu general secretary Chris de Vos.

"We worked right through the night to get a mandate. We said that at least half the workforce could come back tomorrow and we could have started clearing up the backlogs." He said the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) told them they had to wait for Satawu to poll their own members. De Vos said they had taken it for granted that they could sign an agreement on their own if they wanted to, and were disappointed by the message from the CCMA. It also meant that their members would lose another day's pay.

The Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry said the strikes had severely affected business. Spokeswoman Nada Reyneke said some exporters complained that their goods have been stranded at Durban harbour since the strike began last week.

With Sapa