Sadtu preparing for confrontation

Nehawu lambasted the retrenchment of contract support staff and lecturers by TVET college and Coastal College

Nehawu lambasted the retrenchment of contract support staff and lecturers by TVET college and Coastal College

Published Jan 18, 2017

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Durban - Sadtu and National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) on Tuesday lambasted the retrenchment of contract support staff and lecturers by TVET college, Coastal College as “counter-productive”.

Nomarashiya Caluza, Sadtu provincial secretary, said the retrenchments came at a time when the country was facing “rocketing” unemployment.

She said 136 lecturers and 36 support staff members’ services were terminated this month because of low student enrolment figures for 2017.

The Coastal College employees were the most affected by the move.

“The college cannot cut student enrolment figures from 14000 down to 9000 while the department has made available R14 billion in funding through NSFAS, part of which is earmarked for 200000 TVET college students,” Caluza said.

She said the union would defend the jobs of its members and a meeting would be called with all the affected workers “for preparation of confrontation” with their employers.

A spokesperson for the affected employees, who asked to remain anonymous, said this month they worked without signing their renewal contracts.

“Early this month the campus manager informed us that our contracts were terminated. We are worried we are not going to be paid our salaries for January,” he said.

Ayanda Zulu, Nehawu spokesperson, said they were made aware by their members of the department’s alleged decision to cut down on enrolment numbers by about 40%.

“We support the total shut-down of the colleges next week until the matter is resolved,” said Zulu.

Daily News

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