South Africa’s power utility, Eskom, on Tuesday finally buckled under pressure and said it would re-appoint the 1,700 workers that were fired after striking at the still-under-construction Medupi power plant.

This is the power utility’s plan to put to an end the disturbances that have stymied building work at the plant, whose Unit 6 is set to come online in July this year with potential to alleviate South Africa’s power problems.

The contract workers were fired late last month for damaging property during the one-day walk-out for superior working conditions and a salary increase.

“To reduce the levels of antagonism and intimidation against workers who want to work, we have decided to reinstate all 1,700 workers,” Khulu Phasiwe, Eskom’s spokesman, told Reuters.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), the majority union at the plant, said it would report back to workers on the new offer on Tuesday.

“I am confident that they will accept the offer,” Steve Nhlapo head of collective bargaining said on Tuesday. Eskom has said the strike was not impacting negatively on construction work on Unit 6 of the new factory. Unit 6 is part of the plant that is likely to start generating power in July this year.