Prison warders will be back at work nationwide this weekend after a last minute resolution to the staffing crisis, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) said on Friday.
Popcru said it would call off the strike, and the department would increase the weekend staff component back to 46% of weekday numbers. The Department of Correctional Services confirmed the agreement.
Correctional Services Minister Ngconde Balfour, who has been in hospital with diabetes this week, said he was satisfied with the outcome of the talks — and Abbey Witbooi, Popcru’s secretary general, agreed. ”There was commitment on both sides to normalise the situation,” Witbooi said.
On Thursday night the country was heading for a weekend of unguarded prisons when Popcru said it would defy a court interdict preventing the warders from striking.
”They (the department) had not been talking to us. We had been running after them all week,” said Boas Motjetsi, the deputy president of Popcru.
However, after the Pretoria High Court postponed the interdict on Friday morning, the unions and departmental representatives met and resolved the crisis.
The department had committed itself to working on improvements to the staffing situation at prisons, so that warders were not expected to work under conditions where they felt unsafe or threatened, said Witbooi.
It also said it would withdraw the interdict, and would meet with Popcru to discuss the suspensions and dismissals that had resulted from the action.
The dispute arose many months ago when the department announced it would further reduce the weekend staff numbers, which meant only about 32% of the warders would be on duty at the weekend.
”It would have been dangerous for us to come to work on the weekends,” said Motjetsi, ”it goes against the Occupational Health and Safety Act.”
The long term solution to this problem seems to be the institution of a seven day working week, which both parties have approved in principal.
At present warders work on weekends as part of a negotiated overtime agreement.
Over the last few weekends, prisons across the country have been in a difficult situation as warders refused to come to work, and picketed within prison grounds.
Several warders were dismissed, and some arrested, for illegal strike action and assault.
In fact, all the way through the action, Popcru contended that its members were not striking, just refusing to work overtime, said Motjetsi.
He said further discussions between the department and the union would continue next week.
The staffing guidelines recommend one warder to every 60 prisoners in medium security prisons, and one to 30 in maximum security institutions. At present prisons like ”Sun City” could have more than 160 prisoners for each warder, said Witbooi. ‒ Sapa