From correspondents in Europe, 07:01 PM IST

Johannesburg: South African workers involved in building a 2010 World Cup stadium in Nelspruit have gone on strike demanding better pay. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said that workers at the Mbombela World Cup stadium stopped work Wednesday morning, bringing all construction at the stadium to a halt.

NUM official George Ledwaba said that the workers were demanding to be paid engineering rates, not builders rates, local media reported. 'It is an old issue, the issue about the management paying workers under the building industry and therefore the wages are calculated in terms of the bargaining council [for that sector],' he said. Ledwaba said that the stadiums should fall under the civil engineering sector and workers should be paid accordingly.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)