The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) on Wednesday issued a press statement regarding its declaration of a deadlock on the payment of educator backlogs.
Naptosa said it only signed the salary agreement reached in the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) in September this year ”because of a clear undertaking by the state as employer regarding the payment of backlogs for educators”.
The matter arose out of the absence of any salary progression for educators from 1996 to 2002.
”Assurances were given that this matter would be resolved through additional funding from the Department of Education. This would give most educators an effective increase of 10,2%,” said the Naptosa statement.
Since then, discussions in the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) have been slow in finding a solution.
All of the unions in the ELRC on Wednesday agreed to sign a draft agreement that would give effect to payment of backlogs for educators, ”the state as employer tabled a greatly reduced offer”.
This resulted in all the unions declaring a deadlock and giving notice of intention to lodge a joint dispute.
These actions by the state ”amount to bad-faith negotiations … and could badly erode the relationship between unions and the Department of Education”, says Naptosa.
”Expectations have been built up by educators who were expecting to receive this money in time for Christmas. Their morale and confidence at this crucial time of the year will be negatively affected,” the organisation added.
It called on the Department of Education to ”honour the commitments given regarding these very critical issues so as to avert a possible crisis”.
Dispute could affect matric exams