Negotiations between Samwu and Pickitup expected to continue through night

Negotiations on the new offer by Johannesburg’s waste management company Pikitup continued on Tuesday night between the company and the representatives of the striking members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).

This is after the union confirmed on Tuesday that the rubbish collection company has made a new offer to stop the unprotected strike that has been going on for five weeks.

While Paul Tlhabang‚ Samwu’s deputy general secretary of the Gauteng region‚ would not discuss the details of the new offer‚ earlier on Tuesday he said there were serious issues in the offer that the union disagreed with and wanted clarity on from the management of Pikitup.

“It’s tough‚ its tough boss‚ and it will take longer than I expected. Maybe we will be done by 10pm‚ but it’s tough‚” Tlhabang told Times Media during a short break while the talks continued.

Tlhabang told Times Media before the meeting started that he expected it to take about three hours and promised to be able to give details of the proceedings after 6pm on Tuesday.

Pikitup could not be reached for comment on Tuesday night.

About 4‚000 members of Samwu are in the fifth week of an unprotected strike‚ which has left rubbish uncollected in most of Johannesburg’s residential areas.

Pikitup contingency measures are being frustrated by intimidation of non-striking and contracted workers and the company on Monday night called on security firms to help by protecting and escorting contracted workers when they collect rubbish.

The union wants alleged salary disparities between city entities corrected and is demanding that the salaries of its members be increased to between R8‚000 and R10‚000 a month.

This after the parties concluded an agreement in November according to which the City of Johannesburg was supposed to conduct a salary benchmarking exercise. However‚ both the union and Pikitup claim that the agreement had been violated.

The strike is the third one since the agreement.

Samwu and its officials are facing possible sanctions from the Labour Court after allegedly failing to abide by multiple interdicts brought against the strike.

Source: TMG Digital.