LOLO MAPHOPHE
THE SA Municipal Workers Union (samwu) has since given the City of Tshwane administrators an ultimatum to confirm that all collective wage agreements ‘will be respected and implemented’ saying failure to do so would be a declaration of war.
This comes after the Democratic Alliance (DA) Tshwane mayoral candidate Randall Williams criticized SAMWU’s protest, which turned violet at the Tshwane CBD on Tuesday.
Pandemonium ensued on Tuesday after workers affiliated to SAMWU stormed the City of Tshwane municipal offices in protest over outstanding benchmark payments.
According to Williams, the damage was caused to public property by protesters in Tshwane and blames the African National Congress (ANC) led government’s “backtracking” on the salary increases as part of the benchmark agreement signed between the municipality and the city’s major unions.
“The DA believes that the administrators should have found a way to get all parties around a table to ensure proper negotiation takes place on this matter before dismissing the concerns raised by the unions,” said Williams in a statement.
Williams lays the blame squarely on the ANC led government saying, “It is alarming to see the violent destruction of city property that has taken place due to the manner in which the ANC administrators simply ignored the workers of the city.”
SAMWU has refused to back down as with regional chairperson, Nkhetheni Muthavhi, insisting that workers will not stop to protest their outstanding payments.
SAMWU’s Tshwane Regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane said they are “angered by the attitude of the city’s administrators who have taken a posture to disregard collective agreements signed between the employer and labour, thus provoking municipal workers.”
Tladinyane said in the first meeting after their appointment, the administrators committed to implementing all signed collective agreements.
“On the 16th of July 2020 the administrators confirmed to the Local Labour Forum that amongst other commitments, the City will pay the 6.25% salary increase which is due to workers. An instruction was issued to officials to load money for payment. It is unfortunate that on Monday, 20 July 2020 administrators took a unilateral decision to reverse such payments,” Tladinyane said.
The City of Tshwane of Tshwane had also entered into a collective agreement with labour on 18 November 2019 to introduce a new grading scale.
This was after the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) had approved that the City of Tshwane be upgraded from category 9 to category 10.
Earlier in the month, SAMWU was vocal over the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) suggestion that municipalities do not comply with the last leg of the 3-year salary and wage agreement which would see municipal workers receiving a 6.25% salary increase.
At the time, SAMWU had insisted that municipalities had written to workers to inform them that they will be honouring the agreement.
The DA has called on the City of Tshwane administrators to work with SAMWU and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Unions (IMATU) in a civil manner to restore service delivery as a matter of urgency and avoid any further destruction or violence that will only cost taxpayers and residents of the city.”
“This simply cannot be tolerated and those involved must face criminal charges,” concluded Williams.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)