Performance-based increase shocks union

150410 SAMWU strike over wages increase.photo by Simphiwe Mbokazi

150410 SAMWU strike over wages increase.photo by Simphiwe Mbokazi

Published May 26, 2015

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Johannesburg - The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) fears that the third round of salary and wage negotiations with Salga is collapsing, the union said in a statement, on Tuesday.

“We were shocked this morning when in opening negotiations, Salga indicated that workers would only get an increment linked to their performance, this despite the fact that local government unions have no performance agreement with Salga. We value the service that is being delivered by municipalities and believe that they should be of quality,” the union said

Samwu said they had always, and continued to encourage their members to be as productive as they could be while executing their duties, but linking their members’ increments to performance was impractical as there was no scope or agreement between parties about the performance.

“Our members continue to work tirelessly in line with their job descriptions as part of their employment contract in municipalities.” Samwu stated.

The union said they opposed the proposal as it would disadvantage their members, particularly in some municipalities which were not equipping their members with tools of trade so they could properly do their jobs.

“Salga principals, who continue to run away from the negotiations are responsible for having put the country’s municipalities in ICU. They have allowed a situation wherein municipalities continue to receive qualified audit reports and disclaimers. Municipalities have become cash cows for them and their friends at the compromise of service delivery, the core function of municipalities.”

Samwu stated that municipalities continually failed to pay their workers on time, and workers in Mafube Local Municipality in the Free State and Knysna Local Municipality in the Western Cape had not been paid their May salaries.

“We firmly believe that this is an attempt by Salga to bully unions into signing the services charter which we have clearly indicated that we will not entertain it until such a time that our members have been properly consulted and the current salary and wage negotiations have been concluded.”

The union added that Salga should not test their patience, and they couldn’t be dragged to meetings with them while they knew that their intention were to prolong the negotiations for their own interests.

“We are beginning to lose trust in Salga’s negotiating team and believe that as a result of them working unsupervised they would not be able to conclude the negotiations, this is why we argue that Salga principals should be involved in negotiations to provide direction to these officials of theirs. Samwu remains committed to the completion of these negotiations, this can however only be achieved if Salga does its part. Salga wake up smell the coffee and realise that workers are looking for a decent increase, not shifting of goal posts.”

The third round of negotiations is currently taking place from the 26th to the 28th May.

ANA

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