Trade unions will announce on Wednesday if they are going to accept Eskom’s offer of a 4.7% wage increase after negotiations restarted on Tuesday.

“We cannot confirm at this time what our response to the offer is until we have communicated it to Eskom‚” the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa)‚ National Union of Mineworkers (Num) and Solidarity said in a joint media statement.

They met with Eskom management via the Central Bargaining Forum on Tuesday to restart wage negotiations which had deadlocked two weeks ago.

Eskom is offering a four-year wage deal with a guaranteed increase based on inflation. They are offering a 4.7% wage increase for 2018 and an inflation based increase every year thereafter for the next four years.

“It is Eskom’s proposal that all other demands regarding an increase in housing allowance‚ payment of performance bonus and insourcing and all other benefits will not be improved and remain unchanged.”

Unions are unhappy that Eskom Group CEO Phakamani Hadebe did not attend the wage talks.

“This was one of the fundamental conditions of the opening of wage talks. We want to engage but we cannot engage with people who do not have the power to take decisions.”

Wage negotiations between Eskom and unions deadlocked after unions demanded wage hikes of between 9% and 15%‚ with Eskom offering no increase.

Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said on Friday night‚ however‚ that a wage freeze was no longer an option.

Eskom had since imposed load shedding which it attributed to acts of “intimidation and sabotage” at some of its power stations‚ amid industrial action by trade unions.