Parties in the civil engineering sector agreed to resume talks to end a dispute over wages, the SA Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (Safcec) said on Friday.

Spokesperson Joe Campanella said parties agreed to resume wage talks during a meeting convened by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on Friday.

"The parties were looking for common ground and committed to meet again... basically, we are back on negotiating terms, we have resumed talking to each other," he said, adding that parties would meet on Monday, 6 July at 9am.

The National Union of Mineworkers threatened to down tools next week at World Cup soccer stadium construction sites after talks between the union and Safcec deadlocked. The union said around 70 000 workers were likely to participate.

Talks hit a wall after Safcec offered workers a 10 percent wage increase while the union demanded 13 percent on Friday, 26 June.

Safcec on Friday argued for an interdict to prevent the industrial action. Campanella said the judgment on its application would be handed down on Monday, but talks would resume irrespective of the outcome of the court bid.

Construction projects likely to be affected by the industrial action, should it proceed, included the Moses Mabhida, Nelson Mandela, Soccer City and Mthatha stadiums.

Sapa

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