#Pikitup negotiations break down again

3/12/15 Rubbish is seen piled up outside the Norwood Pikit up depo this week as employees went on an illegal strike. Picture:Paballo Thekiso

3/12/15 Rubbish is seen piled up outside the Norwood Pikit up depo this week as employees went on an illegal strike. Picture:Paballo Thekiso

Published Apr 1, 2016

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Johannesburg - Negotiations between Johannesburg waste-management company, Pikitup, the City of Johannesburg and workers affiliated to SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) to end the four-week strike broke down again late Thursday.

Pikitup blamed Samwu for the breakdown alleging it was not being flexible during negotiations, while the union claimed the company was negotiating in bad faith.

On Thursday Pikitup said its Samwu-affiliated workers had been paid their March salaries despite being on an unprotected strike for most of the month, but the waste removal company aslo said it would dock salaries next month under the no work, no pay rule.

About 4 000 Pikitup workers affiliated to Samwu have been on an unprotected strike since March 9, demanding wage hikes from R6 000 to R10 000 a month and that MD Amanda Nair, whom they accuse of graft, step down.

This was the fourth strike by Pikitup workers, since November 2015, over the same reasons, though Nair was cleared by the courts on charges of corruption.

Samwu’s regional deputy secretary Paul Tlhabang earlier on Thursday said the union’s leadership would meet Pikitup at the Metro Centre in a bid to end the strike.

However, in a statement late on Thursday, Pikitup spokesperson Jacky Mashapu said the meeting did not yield immediate results because Samwu’s position was that outstanding issues must be resolved before workers return to work.

Mashapu said the City and Samwu leadership met to discuss a return to negotiations as provided for in last year’s Political Facilitation Agreement (PFA).

The Agreement had committed the parties to a cessation of hostilities until matters in the PFA were resolved.

“The city proposed a shortened period of time to conclude the negotiations on parity and benchmarking with a dispute resolution mechanisms. This approach would ensure a win/win situation for all parties wherein workers return work, they earn their salaries reducing the impact of no work no pay and the city is cleaned,” Mashapu said.

Samwu’s Tlhabang wasn’t immediately available for comment after the meeting.

The City of Joburg is paying private contractors R1 million a day to perform the duties of the striking Pikipup workers.

Since the strike began, Samwu members have ignored pre-dismissal notices from Pikitup, and calls by their national office to return to work. They have also ignored two interdicts from the Labour Court to end the unprotected strike.

Instead, the workers have been embarking in protests in Johannesburg CBD and Braamfontein, leaving a trail of destruction of municipal property and trashing streets in the city.

Samwu shop stewards linked to the strike are facing charges of gross misconduct for allegedly orchestrating or inciting their Pikitup colleagues to embark on or take part in a previous unlawful work stoppage between February 4 and 5.

They were this week appearing before the disciplinary committee charged with gross misconduct for embarking on illegal work stoppages in December 2015, February 2016 and March 2016.

The Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) have been roped in to escort Pikitup trucks and temporary workers in a bid to prevent attacks against them during the strike, after refuse trucks were shot at.

African News Agency

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