Collective Bargaining Agreement Soft Drinks Manufacturing Industry 2026

The Soft Drinks Manufacturing Employers' Association and the Soft Drinks Manufacturing Workers Union agreed a 4% increase in basic wages and allowances for the quarter from October to December 2024, and that agreement has now been gazetted.

The grade A1 minimum goes from US$265.00 to US$275.60 a month, and the 5% differential between grades carries the increase up the scale: A3 to US$303.85, B3 to US$351.74, C1 to US$407.19 and C3 to US$448.92. Employers must pay 75% of the wage in US dollars and 25% in ZWG, indexed at the interbank rate — with the rate taken a week before the pay date or as close to it as possible, so a pay date of the 25th uses the rate on the 18th.

Allowances are set alongside: a housing allowance of US$54.08 a month and a transport allowance of US$46.80, with employers who provide housing or transport in kind, or who refund actual expenditure, exempt from paying them. Subsistence for an employee required to sleep away from home is either proven travel and subsistence expenses or a minimum of US$32.00 a night unproven. Night shift work pays US$2.00 a night.

The practical point is timing: the agreement was signed on 7 February 2025 for a quarter that ended in December 2024, and was gazetted on 6 February 2026. Employers who paid the old rates for that quarter are looking at an arrears calculation, not a forward-looking increase. The instrument does not state how arrears are to be settled.