Cape Town - Striking workers at the 10111 emergency call centre have been asked to return to work until feedback is given on Friday on talks between different parties.
Talks deadlocked on Sunday, after the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) demanded to officially join negotiations between the SA Police Union (Sapu) and police management. Popcru members were not on strike.
According to Sapu, Popcru asked to officially join the negotiations, as they were party to talks from the beginning even though their members were not on strike.
The CCMA, which has been mediating, gave Popcru until Wednesday to seek a mandate from members to join the talks failing which they will continue without them.
The call centre workers demanded to be paid on par with operators in other spheres of government and also wanted transportation.
The dispute goes back to 2013, when the 10111 staff met then-national police commissioner Riah Phiyega and Gauteng provincial police chief Lesetja Mothiba regarding their salary level and were promised they would be upgraded from level 5 to level 7.
Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said: “We never distanced ourselves from our people because we know they are really being exploited.
“We just wanted things to be done accordingly and the strike was just immature.
“We believe in the shortest way is more effective and by striking we are losing the plot. We need to exhaust all ways before resorting to strike, the legal way will yield good results.”