Construction workers have agreed to call off a strike at one of the stadia which is to host the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa, their union announced on Monday. "The strike has been called off with effect from today. The workers will report for work on Tuesday," spokesman of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), Lesiba Seshoka, told AFP.
Workers had downed tools at the Moses Mabhida stadium in the eastern coastal city of Durban on November 7 in a dispute over pay and conditions and the NUM had planned to widen the stoppage to the other nine stadia hosting the tournament.
"The workers have agreed on an offer of a 6,000 rand (896 dollars) project bonus presented to them today at the construction site in Durban. Two thousand rand will be paid to each of the workers on December 14 and the remaining 4,000 by May 2008," the spokesman said. The qualifying rounds of the tournament is due to take place in Durban this weekend.
NUM threatened last week that the strike could spread to include all the stadia currently being either built from scratch or extensively renovated as well as the 25 billion rand (3.7 billion US dollar) Gautrain rail link in Johannesburg, and the 6.8 billion rand King Shaka international airport near Durban.