20100704
reuters

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African unions said on Sunday they had called off a planned strike at the power utility Eskom after receiving a higher wage offer, ending concern about power supplies during the football World Cup.

Widespread power cuts could also have dented manufacturing and mining companies' output in Africa's biggest economy, the world's top platinum and fourth-largest gold producer.

Eskom had said it would be illegal to strike at the utility because it is an essential service and warned it would punish strikers who had planned to go on strike this week.

"We think that it is a very serious offer and ask our members to seriously review it. We are not in a position to support an illegal strike by workers," Irvin Jim, the general secretary for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), told a media briefing.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and Numsa said they felt 9 percent was the best offer they could get from Eskom and conceded that a strike would have been illegal under South African law.

Last year the unions called off a strike planned at Eskom at the last minute after accepting a pay deal.

Analysts had predicted Eskom would strike a compromise deal with the unions.

The decision was taken jointly by officials of Numsa and NUM, the biggest union at Eskom with about half of the 32,000 staff.