Averting a national municipal workers strike hangs in the balance after the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) threatened to down tools‚ a move that has been labelled “premature and careless” by the employer organisation SA Local Government Association (Salga).
The union has refused to accept a revised 5‚9% salary increase offer‚ declared a dispute with Salga and threatened to embark on a nationwide strike if mediation fails.
Tahir Sema‚ Salga’s spokesperson on negotiations‚ said they had learnt of the latest developments with great shock.
He said local government trade unions‚ Samwu in particular‚ had shown complete disregard for the negotiations under way to put in place a new agreement on salary and wages in the Local Government sector.
“This union has insisted on bogging down negotiations with frivolous issues that have no place at the negotiating table. They withdrew their leadership from the negotiations to frustrate it and even staged protest action outside the negotiations to derail it‚” he said.
Sema said the union’s attack on Salga CEO Xolile George was demonstrative of a desperate union trying to prove its worth to its members whom it has not serviced and consulted on matters as important as salary and wages.
“It is also highly unlikely Samwu criss-crossed the country and consulted their members to obtain a mandate to declare a dispute‚” he said.
Samwu spokesperson Papikie Mohale has said the declared dispute was a sign of lack of leadership within Salga under George‚ “whose salary is highly over inflated for literally doing nothing”.
“It is for this reason that we were not surprised at the outcomes of the latest Auditor General’s report into the country’s municipalities wherein municipalities continued to perform badly under George’s watch. This and other issues being faced by municipalities will obviously not be resolved‚ so long as George is still at the helm of Salga‚” he said.
Mohale said they formally declared a dispute with Salga after three rounds of negotiations‚ which he said were a fruitless exercise and a waste of time.
“Should both parties fail to get a mutually beneficial solution we will then get a certificate of non-resolution which will lead to a protected full-blown nationwide strike action‚” he said.
The union is demanding an 11% increase.
- RDM News Wire
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