Striking Johannesburg municipal workers will not be marching along the city’s streets on Tuesday — because it’s raining.
”We will gather outside the Metro Centre for a short while to hand over another part of our memorandum and that will be it,” South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) spokesperson Dumisani Langa said.
The memorandum details issues the workers want addressed, including:
- Salary disparities;
- Reintroduction of free transport on municipal buses for workers travelling to and from work; and
- Performance management systems.
The municipality, meanwhile, has urged the union to return to negotiations.
City spokesperson Gabu Tugwana said: ”We are calling for Samwu to return to the negotiating table in order to assist in achieving a speedy resolution to their grievances”.
Langa, however, said Samwu had not officially been informed of a call to return to negotiations.
”We have only read about it in newspaper reports.”
He added union leaders would spend Tuesday preparing for a court hearing on Wednesday.
The Labour Court on Friday ruled that non-essential service workers and workers in emergency services could strike.
The ruling followed a failed application by the city seeking an interdict to prevent the work stoppage.
The court ruled that Johannesburg had not complied with the five-day notice period.
A final ruling is expected on Wednesday and, if it goes Samwu’s way, the union has said it would urge other Gauteng municipalities to join the strike.
”If the court says we can go ahead with a protected strike, we will serve all Gauteng municipalities with notices of a secondary strike,” said Langa.
On Monday, dozens of Ekurhuleni municipality workers arrived in Johannesburg in support of the strike. ‒ Sapa