The Metrorail strike has cost businesses in Cape Town millions of rands, the Cape Chamber of Commerce said on Tuesday.

"The costs must run to many millions of rands," said Chamber president Jeremy Wiley.

Cape Town businesses have reported an increase in employee absenteeism, late arrivals to work and requests to go home early to avoid traffic congestion caused by the strike.

"When you add these three factors together it becomes clear that the strike is undermining productivity and the cost to business will be enormous," said Wiley.

He said the loss in productivity threatened business's ability to pay wage increases demanded by labour during other industrial action.

"We call on Metrorail and the unions to resolve the matter without delay," said Wiley.

The nationwide strike by Metrorail train drivers continued into its second day on Tuesday as unionists insisted the labour action had a "huge impact" on services.

"The service they (Metrorail) are running is a public holiday or a Sunday service. It is having huge impact because most of their train drivers are on strike," said United Transport and Allied Trade Union (Utatu) spokesperson Pieter Greyling.

The Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) said the strike had mainly affected Cape Town which operated at 31 percent on Monday. Gauteng South had operated at 93 percent, Gauteng North at 89 percent and Durban at 70 percent.

Prasa said on Monday that Metrorail's overall train service performance for the morning stood at 80 percent of its regular service.

But Greyling dismissed this.

"That is pure propaganda," said Greyling.

Utatu represents between 2500 and 2800 Metrorail workers, including train drivers and most of the administrative staff such as ticket sellers.

The main sticking point in wage negotiations with Metrorail was a proposed new limitation on the number of overtime hours workers could claim, said Greyling.

"This will mean that our people could end up earning between R4000 and R6000 less per month. These people have been working this overtime for years now, and now the company wants to start limiting it."

Utatu's fellow union, the SA Transport and Allied Workers' Union, is not taking part in the strike.