/ 11 May 1990

Hospital strike ends with rights for union

Thousands of black health workers last night ended their 10-day strike at a dozen hospitals on the Reef after the authorities agreed to wide ranging union rights and an end to discriminatory labour practices in the public sector. The National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) clinched the agreement, the first-ever between a black union and the government’s health services, after a week of intense bargaining. 

The Transvaal Provincial Administration granted de facto recognition to the union and agreed to bargain with, it over wages in future. The workers did not, however, win any immediate wage increases. African National Congress Deputy President Nelson Mandela made a 30- minute telephone call to Constitutional Affairs Minister Gerrit Viljoen on the eve of his trip through Africa, union sources told the Weekly Mail. This helped to break the logjam in the dispute that left most townships on the Reef without effective health services for a week. 

Today’s agreement is not only a victory for health workers, but also for the public making use of health services,” said Nehawu general secretary Sisa Njikelana at a press conference in Johannesburg last night. ”It is also a victory for the entire labour movement in that it is another step in the battle to win basic worker rights from the state in the public sector.” The TPA said it would put an end to the practice of employing workers as casual labour and from the date of signing all employees were defined s permanent workers. 

The strike was sparked by complaints that workers received wages as low as R250 a month and that employees who had been in service for as long as 30 years were retained as casual workers. Other terms of last night’s agreement include the right of women workers to keep their posts if they fall pregnant and the right to arbitration in cases where a labour dispute cannot be resolved by the union and the TPA. The agreement says that ”the parties agree to establish acceptable channels of negotiation between them” and to ”negotiate within these channels salary, safety, security, job creation and training for 1990 and ensuing years. The wide-ranging agreement will force the government to revise collective bargaining procedures in the public sector, said Njikelana.

The Public Service Act of 1984 does not provide for the recognition of a unions or negotiation over conditions of employment. Nehawu is of the view that these are essential to prevent further protracted and damaging disputes in the health sector. The TPA also agreed to eliminate any discrimination that still exists in payment of wages and other conditions of employment. Workers will not be required to work more than 40 hours a week. Nehawu won the right to be consulted in cases where it was possible that hospitals would be privatised. This is a crucial victory for public sector unions which have been campaigning against privatisation for the past two years. 

The administrator of The Transvaal, Danie Hough, welcomed the agreement and said the TPA was committed to ”an open door approach where good employer/employee relations are concerned”. He added the department would strive to render efficient health services to the community. Although the agreement ended a wave of strikes in the Transvaal, the Eastern Cape’s busiest hospital was left striken by industrial action this week. 

Patrick Goodenough reports from Port Elizabeth that nine out of every 10 workers at the city’s Livingstone Hospital downed tools on Tuesday 10 back demands for higher wages. On the strike’s second day, medical superintendent Dr Graham White said the situation had become critical. Ambulances were bringing in only emergency cases and the casualty department was forced to operate with a 70 percent reduction in staff. Workers are demanding increase and a minimum wage of R535 per month and recognition for Nehawu. Talks between the union and the Cape Provincial Administration are continuing.

This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.

 

M&G Newspaper