OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 7.00pm.
THE National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union on Sunday warned employers in tertiary education institutions to put a moratorium on retrenchments or face a national strike early next year. More than 3000 have been retrenched in the sector so far. Nehawu president Vusi Nhlapo warned that the union will call a national solidarity strike in March next year should employers in the sector continued “negotiating in bad faith”. Nehawu is calling for a moratorium on retrenchments, an appropriate skills audit model, establishment of transformation forums where they do not exist and the re-instatement of retrenched workers. “Part of our plan will be the establishment of national bargaining councils and a call for demands of minimum wage, paid education and training leave, employment equity plans and health and safety measures,” Nhlapo said. He said Nehawu would hold a public sector job summit in the second half of 1999 aimed at stopping retrenchment and creating jobs in the public sector. “We are going to mount a propaganda campaign to keep the public service public,” Nhlapo said. “We will protect our jobs and will continue to fight the outsourcing of services by the government and local authorities.” Nehawu
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