The union representing striking security guards and their employers need to resolve their wage dispute without the Minister of Labour’s intervention, he said on Tuesday.
Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said that both parties — and not himself — held the key to an amicable solution, he said in a statement sent from Cairo, where he was attending a labour summit.
”The Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration — an organ of the Labour Department — has been trying to get the two parties back to negotiations. As a minister of labour, I am therefore surprised by Satawu’s constant calls for my intervention,” Mdladlana said.
”Once the two parties reach an agreement, it will be presented to the Employment Conditions Commission which in turn would advise me on the way forward,” he said.
In a meeting with Gauteng safety MEC Firoz Cachalia late on Monday, the SA Trade and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) expressed the hope that government would take a more active role in the dispute.
”There’s the feeling that there’s a lot of hands-off approach from the government’s side, and that they should be actively involved,” said Satawu spokesperson Ronnie Mamba.
He said they had asked the department for a meeting with Mdladlana. Failing that, they would be ”fairly content” with the director general of the department, said Mamba.
Satawu members were still striking for an 11% wage increase, whereas 14 other unions had already settled for 8,3%.
Mdladlana also added that Satawu were breaking the law by not registering their 34 370 claimed members with the Registrar of Labour Relations.
Satawu had earlier rejected as ”inaccurate” and ”pro-business in character” the department’s records that showed it having only 20 300 members.
The figure, however, was registered as the current official one according to the department’s records, as supplied by Satawu, Mdladlana said.
”If Satawu claims to have grown in membership, they know well that they should record that with the registrar … as failure to do so is contrary to the law,” the minister said.
Assuming that Satawu’s membership had in fact grown to 34 370, this figure — together with that of the 10 000 from the other 14 unions — still fell short of the threshold required to form a bargaining council.
”Security industry membership currently stands at just over 100 000 and, for a bargaining council to be formed, union membership has to exceed 50 000, as required by the law.”
One of the unions who are part of the group of 14 said Satawu’s continued strike was a ”recruitment strategy” and a ”desperate act” to counter other unions.
The South African Private Security Workers’ Union said Satawu’s demands for an 11% increase was just as paltry as the eight percent for which it had settled.
”We all agree that eight percent is nothing to the low-paid security workers, similarly, 11% is just nothing,” union general secretary Cavis Tshabiso said.
”However, like Minister Mdladlana said, we need maximum unity in the security sector and you need unions to realise that we are going to continue to be weak for as long as we are engaged in dirty competition among ourselves,” he added.
Meanwhile, Satawu rubbished claims that striking security workers who were members of the union in KwaZulu-Natal were responsible for the burning of 59 buses in Umlazi on Sunday.
”Satawu condemns the statement made by the MEC for Transport in KwaZulu-Natal, Bheki Cele, who insinuated that the striking security workers … may have been responsible,” the union said in a statement. – Sapa