Pretoria - Lecturers stationed at Community Learning Centres across Tshwane have vowed to continue their protest outside the doorstep of the Department of Higher Education and Training in Pretoria until their pleas for permanent employment are finally heard.
Councillor Terry Maboe, from the EFF regional labour desk, said they joined workers who came looking for help in taking on the department as it had failed to do right by lecturers stationed at Community Learning Centres formerly known as Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET) centres.
Maboe said workers were unhappy with the 45% salary cut that some of them received this month and questioned why so many had remained on contract for many years without permanent employment.
"We are here to make sure that workers get what is due to them because you can't be a teacher for over five or even 10 years without a permanent contract that is just unfair to these people."
Karabo Tshoane, a lecturer from DWT Nthathe Community Learning Centre in Winterveldt, said they were unhappy that they were working on a contract for many years and being paid on an hourly basis by the department.
Tshoane said what frustrated them the most was the fact that they were not getting paid the same salary scales across the board, with some lecturers being granted more working hours than others without a proper explanation.
According to the lecturer, following the migration from the Department of Basic Education to the Department of Further Education and Training in 2015, the prospect of permanency was alluded to by officials but has yet to come to fruition.
She said instead they were informed as time went on that the department could not implement it as they worked on an hourly basis.
"When they said standardisation, we thought we would all be on the same standard of payment, but it's not the case as some people are paid for six hours or eight hours, whilst others are sitting on four to six hours’ pay.
’’No one can really say to us what type of employment we're in and how much the rate is for an hour," added Mmapula Poo, another lecturer from Winterveldt.
"From 2015, we've been fighting this fight to ensure all lecturers get eight hours and have a decent salary, but instead things are getting worse; just like how our salaries were cut this month and we're not getting any proper explanation as to why this is the case."
Tshaone said although they had been forced to sign new contracts in November, they were assured by departmental officials their salaries would remain the same.
On the ground, however, Tshoane said workers had lost a lot more as pension contributions were now being deducted from their salaries, with a 37% additional payment normally given to contract workers also no longer included.
"We want to know why we have different types of permanent employment and why they're pushing us back to unions who themselves don't understand our conditions of employment."
Amos Monyela, deputy director within the department, assured workers that the department was willing to assist them with their issues and urged workers to bring their payslips to address their individual needs.
Monyela tried to explain to workers that there were a few hiccups with the system, but some of the deductions on workers’ salaries were not out of the norm as they included tax and a 7.5% pension contribution.
Pretoria News