ANC MP Phillip Dexter used to lead health workers’ strikes. Now he is sharply critical of the conduct of nurses
The strike action by nurses in the Gauteng area has thrown to the fore the issue of the public service in the new democratic dispensation. It is not the first such action. There have been threats from the police and the computer operators, as well as “wild-cat” actions by various other public servants.
There has been a tendency to put this action down to the perceived failure of the African National Congress-led Government of National Unity to deal with public servants’ grievances. The situation is much more complicated than this. To be fair to the GNU, it has hardly had time to begin to deal with the enormous structural problems that exist within the public service. The problem is a legacy of past practices of the National Party, the failure of workers to organise and the serious economic problems that face the country. A solution can only be found if a strategy is devised to deal with all these problems simultaneously.
As a former trade unionist who has led strikes in the health sector, I have observed these actions and find them to be unacceptable. Previous industrial action in the public sector, including the health sector, took place in the context of apartheid. An illegitimate government that would not recognise representative worker organisations and sought to crush these by force also would not provide a framework for negotiating issues.
Furthermore, such a government was openly hostile to black workers and their aspirations. The ANC is the complete opposite of this. What is more, mechanisms and structures are in place to negotiate conditions of service, even if these are imperfect. The new Labour Relations Act represents the unique opportunity to ensure these are improved.
Finally, the majority of these nurses failed to take action against the NP regime for any reasons in the past when Nehawu (the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union) and other unions called for action. During all the industrial action of the past, unions such as Nehawu offered to tender emergency services to ensure the lives of patients were not put at risk. These workers have not done that.
But public service workers do have legitimate grievances. The cause of these is to be found in the poor governance practised by the NP apartheid regime. Successive pay increases that favoured the higher-paid public servants were pushed through by Sana (South African Nursing Association), the Public Servants’ Association and other such sweetheart organisations. The current disparity between the highest-paid and the lowest-paid public servants is 25 to 1.
Black people were only offered positions as nurses, social workers, police and teachers in the public service. The policy of promoting white people in particular to managerial positions has created a “bottleneck”, where a black nurse cannot advance above a certain position.
The ANC recognises the need to transform the public service. But the very fact that this process requires consultation and participation is itself slowing down the transformation that is needed. There is nothing to be done about that.
The Draft White Paper on the Public Service details the creation of a transformation forum for the entire public sector. The Health Department has already indicated its desire to set up such a forum and the agreement struck with the workers has detailed this for the nurses. Such a move, which would seem to separate out the nurses, would undermine the strategy that the Draft White Paper hints at. In fact, it is a recipe for disaster, as each group of public servants that wants something or other will now seek to hold the government to ransom in a similar fashion.
The Public Sector Forum is needed to ensure all the relevant parties can begin to negotiate the entire package that is needed to transform the public service. Only such a strategy of co-determination between the government as employer and representative of the will of the people and the public service workers, together with other directly affected interest groups, will ensure that the public service can be