Union shuts M1 highway over pay dispute with city of Johannesburg

Public servants in Johannesburg took to the streets to shut down the M1 highway on Thursday afternoon. 

This after they were convened by their union, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), for a general meeting where they were to receive feedback regarding negotiations with the city’s administration on their financial grievances.

Among the issues raised is the Politically Facilitated Agreement (PFA) which was signed in 2016 between the city and labour to amend the wage scale and salary disparities among workers. There are also grievances regarding workers’ locomotive allowances.

Samwu provincial secretary Mpho Tladinyane said the idea behind the PFA was to regularise the differences between the salaries paid to workers in the city and those paid  to workers doing the same job in the entities.

“Phase one was implemented but phase two was not. This is what brought workers to demand the implementation of the second phase to ensure that there are no longer salary disparities,” Tladinyane said.

Samwu regional secretary Thobani Nkosi raised several additional issues that were brought to the city’s attention.

“The employer has been failing to implement decisions that it agreed to with the union. Second,  there are outstanding matters such as locomotive allowances, adequate tools for doing the job and proper personal protection equipment (PPE) for workers,” Nkosi added.

Acting city manager Brian Maduba attempted to address the workers but was not welcomed as the workers demanded to be addressed instead by mayor Mpho Phalatse.

The disgruntled workers claimed that they were getting paid less than other municipal workers in other Gauteng metros.

To remedy this, Samwu called for a salary benchmarking with other Gauteng metros.

“It cannot be that Johannesburg is the biggest metro in Gauteng but the city workers do not earn the same as workers from other metros such as Ekurhuleni,” Nkosi said.

Samwu said the strike, which brought the M1 highway to a standstill, would continue until Phalatse comes to addresses workers herself.

Phalatse’s office could not be reached for comment.

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