Cape Town -Trade union federation, Cosatu, has on Thursday morning welcomed the commitment made by UCT to end outsourcing of workers at the university.
The statement by Cosatu, the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union, reportedly signed an agreement with the university following a years-long campaign by students for an end to outsourcing of workers there.
Students have long argued that outsourced workers at UCT should be entitled to the same benefits as academic staff, including dispensations for their children to study at discounted rates at the university.
On Wednesday UCT announced it would begin a process to determine the modalities, framework and timeframes of the implementation of its decision to insource workers.
It reportedly committed to carrying out insourcing when contracts with various service-providers came to an end.
Cosatu spokesman, Sizwe Pamla, said other universities in the country should copy UCT’s decision.
“The iniquitous crime of outsourcing and the use of exploitative labour brokers should be eliminated all across the sectors of the economy,” Pamla said.
He said workers who were currently being outsourced received no benefits, earned poverty wages and had no job security.
“They are bullied and intimidated against joining trade unions, therefore being denied their right to organise, bargain and strike,” he said.
It was beyond dispute that outsourced security services led to a less safe working environment, he added.
“The contracted security companies want to maximise profits and this can only be achieved by cutting corners and cutting back on staff,” Pamla said. “The contracted security (workers) earn low wages and staff come and go, making the workers to have very little institutional knowledge or loyalty. This trend applies to all outsourced services.
“Outsourced cleaning, outsourced porter services, outsourced maintenance, outsourced pharmaceutical dispensing (and so on) all lead to less efficient services and these provide for inadequate working conditions.”
UCT and the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) earlier announced a watershed agreement on ending the outsourcing of services.
“UCT management and the Nehawu Joint Shop Stewards Council [on Wednesday] concluded an historic agreement that UCT will insource the six outsourced services,” said Patricia Lucas, spokeswoman for the university.
The agreement between the university and the Nehawu Joint Shop Stewards Council (JSSC) was signed on Wednesday. It comes after workers and students demanded the ending of outsourcing, which they have termed “modern day slavery”, and follows soon after UCT expressed its support for student protests and no fee increases for 2016.
Although having gained most of its momentum during the #FeesMustFall movement which began at the University of Witwatersrand on October 15, the call to end outsourcing at the university began at least five years ago with workers - mainly those contracted to cleaning service Supercare - striking on campus. Earlier this year, the student-led Rhodes Must Fall movement then committed itself to tabling the workers’ demands.
According to the agreement, insourcing would commence at the end of the relevant contracts and after an appropriate handover period. Where contracts were still in force for a few years, UCT and Nehawu JSSC would search for escape or buyout clauses. Should these clauses cost the university anything additional, they would not be pursued.
However, where contracts were still in place for a few years, the parties agreed to converge wages so that outsourced workers’ wages matched those of UCT workers and those workers in the employ of outsourced contractors when the transfer date arrived would be absorbed into the university.
The agreement did not however prevent the use of contractors for specialised services, whether technical or managerial.
The services which would now be insourced at UCT were the cleaning of residences, the cleaning of university buildings, catering in student residences, grounds and gardening services, campus protection services, and student and staff transport services.
The companies affected are Metro, Supercare, C3, Turfworks, G4S, and Sibanye.
As part of the agreement, Nehawu had committed itself to ensuring the currently outsourced employees would return to work within the next two days. Certain important services would return to work on Thursday but, as the university had previously stated operations would resume on October 30, no punitive action would be taken against workers who could not make it to work on Thursday.
“We now need to work, with Nehawu and student leaders, to address outstanding issues relating to enabling the consolidation period and exams to be proceed,” said UCT Vice-Chancellor Max Price.
Price said the university, which has been closed for almost two weeks due to student and worker protests, would return to full operations on Monday, November 2 while exams were proposed to start on November 9.
Labour Bureau and ANA
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