A third-party arbiter proposed a higher wage offer to South Africa’s State-owned ports and rail company and its unions in a bid to stave off a potential strike by thousands of logistics workers.

The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration put forward a settlement that includes a 6% increase for all bargaining-unit employees at Transnet every year for three starting April 1, applied retrospectively.

The logistics firm also committed to no mandatory retrenchments in the period, the United National Transport Union — which represents more than 26 000 people at the company that employs about 46 000 — said in a statement on its X account late Tuesday.

The union, known as UNTU, “fought for job security and ensuring a better increase to all the Transnet bargaining-unit employees,” it said.

UNTU rejected an earlier offer by the company to increase pay by 6% over the next two years and 5.5% in the third year, instead demanding 10% in the first year alone. The smaller South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union accepted the plan in March. The nation’s annual inflation slowed to 2.7% in that month.

The CCMA invited Satawu to Tuesday’s meetings and subsequently engaged with the company and the two unions at the Transnet Bargaining Council, UNTU said. The parties have to provide feedback on the offer to the commissioners by June 10.

The wage dispute comes as Transnet works to recover from years of corruption and theft, and deals with dilapidated equipment that has posed a key threat to the South African economy and its exports. Inefficient rail lines and ports have sent coal and iron-ore exports to multi-decade lows and cost the nation more than R400-billion in 2022, according to the Treasury.

A World Bank study ranks key ports run by Transnet, which has R138-billion of debt, among the least efficient worldwide, which the company disputes.