Following negotiations overnight the National Education‚ Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) and the Department of Social Development have entered into an agreement to end the five-week social services strike.
Nehawu spokesperson Khaya Xaba said the negotiations were lengthy.
“We signed the agreement this morning around 03:00 and we started negotiations at 11:00 yesterday morning‚” he said on Wednesday.
Though an agreement has been reached‚ Xaba said the difficult task of demobilising workers still had to be done.
“We still need to iron out our issues in relation to our members and see if they agree to the terms. Emotions are high. It's easy to mobilise workers around a demand but it's difficult to demobilise them.”
The union had laid out 13 demands before the Department of Social Development‚ following failed attempts to have these met in August 2015.
Among these are higher entry level salaries for department employees‚ provision of tools of the trade and the introduction of rural allowances.
Xaba said the policy which determined salaries and the introduction of rural allowances were some of the sticky issues dealt with in the negotiations.
The Department of Social Development is now expected to approach the National Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration in terms of the agreement.
The strike‚ which began on March 13‚ has claimed the life of at least one child while scores of minors had to be relocated from the department's youth and child care centres.
Six-month-old Singalakha Sonamzi died last month at NGO Bethany House Trust after being transferred from Walter Sisulu Child Youth Care Centre.
The department had said that it would assist her family with the burial and counselling.
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