The South African labour market is bracing itself for countrywide strikes as disputes between the government and major unions over teachers’ salaries and the working conditions of prison warders reach boiling point.
The South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) has withdrawn its threat to strike next week as schools reopen in several provinces, but has threatened industrial action in the next two months if its grievances are not addressed. Its main sticking point is the backlog in teachers’ salaries.
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) this week threatened to embark on industrial action, despite dismissals of several prison officials who participated in a series of strikes on Christmas and New Year’s Day.
Popcru said it was mobilising its members throughout the country for a three-week nationwide strike starting next week. At issue is a departmental decision to reduce the number of warders on duty over weekends.
Tensions between Popcru and the Department of Correctional Services worsened this week when the department dismissed 72 warders from prisons in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, bringing the total dismissed in the past few months to 302.
The department this week warned it would continue to take strong action against any official who participated in an illegal strike.
“It needs to be made absolutely clear that any illegal strike and flouting of the department’s policies, such as refusal to wear the insignia, will be met with appropriate disciplinary action,” said departmental spokesperson Manelisi Wolela.
Popcru said it would not be intimidated by the department’s threats.
“We are intensifying our action,” said Popcru’s secretary general Abbey Witbooi this week. “Our members are dismissed because they refuse to work under dangerous conditions. The number of inmates … has been growing at a fast rate while the number of personnel has remained the same over the past five years.”
Popcru claim the correctional service department has lost more than 1 000 members between March 2003 and March 2004.
Meanwhile, the battle between the government and teachers’ unions over a R777-million gap in teachers’ salaries took a new turn this week when the department challenged the union’s move to take the dispute to the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC). In its submission to the ELRC the department argued that it had no jurisdiction to entertain the dispute.
Sadtu and three other teachers’ unions — the Natal Teachers Union, the National Professional Teachers Organisation of South Africa and the Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwysers Unie — in November declared a dispute with the education department over its alleged failure to pay salaries owed to teachers.
During the ELRC meeting late last year, the four teachers’ unions refused to sign a draft agreement that would have given effect to the payment of backlogs for educators. They have accused government of reneging on earlier agreements that R180-million — in addition to R500-million agreed upon in the general public servants bargaining chamber —Â would be found. But the department now says it cannot afford the extra R180-million.
Thulas Nxesi, Sadtu’s general secretary, was quick to criticise the move, saying it was a clear indication that government was running away from the facts. “The dispute is [to devise] the model to compensate educators for lack of salary progression from 1996 to 2002. Government wants a cheaper model,” said Nxesi.
Fikile Hugo, Sadtu’s chief negotiator, this week told the Mail & Guardian that although the union had no intention of disrupting the opening of schools next week, it would still embark on a strike in the first quarter of the year if the matter is not resolved through conciliation.