The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has called off its planned strike in Cape Town following a Labour Court ruling on Monday that the action would be unlawful.
The strike, in protest against what the union claimed was unilateral staff restructuring by the city, was to have started at midnight.
Acting Judge David Gush granted the city an order declaring the strike unprotected and unlawful, and interdicting the union from instigating city employees to take part in it.
He said some of the disputes that the union had raised were not issues on which it could ever legally go on strike, and should be resolved by other methods such as arbitration. On other issues, where it could strike, it was acting prematurely in terms of the procedures set out in labour law.
The union called the strike claiming the city was not bargaining in good faith, and demanded all restructuring that had taken place be reversed. However, the city’s legal team argued on Monday that it was impossible for the city to accede to this demand.
Advocate Colin Kahanowitz said ”tens of thousands” of workers, not only members of Samwu but also of the majority union in the city, the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union, had already been placed in the new structure set up after the city was formed from seven separate municipalities in 2007.
”How we are supposed to reverse that process is beyond us,” he said.
Kahanowitz also said that if recent history was anything to go by, a strike would not only affect service delivery, but ”there will in all likelihood be violence”.
Council spokesperson Pieter Cronje said the council was pleased by the ruling. ”Our first responsibility is service delivery, and we had to get clarity from the court in the light of the several issues in dispute,” he said.
Samwu’s Cape metropole chairperson Lance Veotte said the union has no problem getting back to the negotiating table. ”[But] it’s difficult for us to negotiate with them while they’re implementing their own plans. They continue with their unilateralist approach,” he said.
He said the union will try ”to the best of our ability” to call off a march through the city centre planned for Tuesday morning, which members of the community have been asked to join.
The city says municipal employees can join the march, but not during working hours. — Sapa