The Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC) is a statutory body created under the Labour Relations Act (LRA) to provide for the co-regulation of stable and productive employment relations in the metal and engineering industries.

The council is an industry based forum of organised business and labour that regulates employment conditions and labour relations in the metal and engineering industry. It provides the necessary, administrative infrastructure and technical expertise to ensure effective collective bargaining, industry compliance, dispute resolution and social protection services.

The MEIBC’s scope covers a wide range of activities within the metal and engineering industries, including the following sectors:-

• The production of iron, steel, alloys and metallurgy 
• General engineering 
• Manufacturing engineering 
• Building and repairs of ships and boats 
• Certain sections of the electrical engineering industry 
• The lift engineering industry and
• The plastics industry.

The MEIBC  are spread nationally across the National Office (Johannesburg), six regional offices named Border Region (East London), Cape Region (Cape Town), Free State and Northern Cape Region (Welkom), Gauteng Region (Johannesburg), KwaZulu Natal Region (Durban), Midland Region (Port Elizabeth), and four satellite offices in Tshwane (Pretoria), George, Emalahleni, and Richards Bay, and a dedicated Centre for Dispute Resolution in Johannesburg.

The main functions of the MEIBC includes:

• Collective Bargaining
• Compliance Management
• Dispute Resolution
• and Social Protection

Among selected activities of the MEIBC are the following: 

• Convening MEIBC Meetings  
• Managing Registration of Companies;
• Facilitating Wage Negotiations;
• Drafting and Processing of Agreements;
• Investigating Complaints;
• Carrying out Site Visits;
• Dealing with the Administration and Enforcement of Agreements;
• Providing Dispute Resolution;
• Dealing with Exemptions;
• Managing the Temporary employment service TES Register;
• Managing various Social Protection Projects;
• and Communicating with the Industry.

The Vision of the MEIBC is to sustain collective bargaining through administering and ensuring compliance with industry standards.

The mission of the MEIBC is to ensure a stable and sound relationships between labour and business in our industry by serving all stakeholders with commitment, fairness and integrity; to brand the MEIBC as a neutral and objective organisation of equal value to labour and business; to facilitate and positively influence the relationship between labour and business; to educate stakeholders in the effective implementation and maintenance of agreements and where appropriate implement value added training and development and to enforce the implementation of agreements at industry level.

The values of the MEIBC are noted too serve with commitment, fairness, integrity, communication, teamwork, diversity & excellence

For the past approximate 24 months however, the MEIBC has been divided to such an extent that the current Main Collective Agreement has not been extended to non-signatories. The Dispute, Administrative and Provident fund Agreement have however been extended.