NSFAS strike is over‚ union confirms

A four-day-long strike by members of the National Education‚ Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has been called off after an agreement was reached with the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The union's secretariat said in a statement on Monday that "the package which workers accepted as the basis of suspending the strike contains an agreement to address salary anomalies for entry level for administrators to be moved from R175‚156 per annum to R209‚421 per annum; entry level for senior finance administrators to be moved from R209‚156 per annum to R289‚336 per annum; entry level for board committee specialists to be moved from R289‚336 per annum to R359‚313 per annum."

The agreement also includes the permanent absorption of 75 employees whose contracts were coming to an end at the end of April 2018.

A once-off gratuity ranging from R4‚500 to R8‚500 will also apply for all employees who are part of the bargaining unit‚ "whilst both parties committed themselves on making performance management to work for the next financial year‚" said Nehawu.

NSFAS said last week that "Nehawu's reluctance to participate in the Performance Management System (PMS)" was one of the issues on the negotiating table. It added that its normal operations were affected by the strike‚ although management had‚ "as far possible‚ made some arrangements to attend to critical operational matters".