The two-week long strike by Pikitup refuse collectors in Johannesburg has ended, the City of Johannesburg said on Thursday.
“Proposals were signed and sealed this morning at 2.45am after 17 hours of marathon negotiations,” spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said.
“The Pikitup team did a sterling job by pushing through the negotiations without a recess in order to give the people of Johannesburg good news before the long weekend.”
He said the city expected the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) to tell workers to return to work on Thursday.
However, because it was leading up to the Easter weekend and many people had gone home, operations were expected to return to normal on Tuesday.
“We expect some workers to resume work today [Thursday] in order to complement some of the contingency plans which the city has been quietly working on,” Tugwana said, adding that these had been kept under wraps to protect contract workers from intimidation.
He said Pikitup workers were believed to be behind an attack on a contract worker in Rissik Street on Wednesday night. The worker was shot at while collecting refuse, but was not hurt.
City employees would be helping to reduce waste at strategic areas, such as restaurants, on Thursday, he said.
Samwu spokesperson Tahir Sema said Pikitup workers were happy with the outcome of the talks.
“All our demands have been accepted, except for the wage disparities … We [workers] agreed though that this wasn’t our primary demand so we are willing to schedule talks at a later stage and send workers back to work today [Thursday].”
He said a number of Pikitup depots had reported that workers were arriving for work on Thursday morning.
“Work is already being rolled out … We hope Pikitup gives some of the workers an opportunity to work over the long weekend and pay them over-time, but this is the employer’s prerogative,” Sema said.
Pikitup workers went on strike on April 7, after a go-slow, demanding, among other things, an internal investigation into allegations of corruption and irregular tenders.
During the strike, Pikitup managing director Zami Nkosi, Pikitup board chairperson Phumla Radebe and several other board members resigned.
The city took the union to the Labour Court, but its application to have the strike declared illegal was dismissed. – Sapa