Why is this exercise being undertaken?
To manage the indefensible salary disparities arising from the merger of the three former institutions and to standardise the conditions of service. Unions and management worked very closely in this process.
Over how many months will it occur?
The changes in people’s salaries were effected on April 1 2008, backdated to January 1 2008. Harmonisation is the first phase of the remuneration management process. It aims to address salary disparities between staff from different institutions.
The second phase will be internal parity. Its purpose is to ensure people who do the same job receive the same salaries. This process will start in the second semester with a detailed data gathering and analysis exercise with a view to submitting a proposal for council’s consideration and possible implementation in 2009.
This will be followed by an external benchmarking process, the purpose of which would be to compare university salaries with the open market and to make adjustments where necessary.
An external parity process is more about knowing where one is paying in relation to the market, rather than responding to an expectation to pay at the exact market level.
How much has been set aside in the budget for harmonisation?
We have set aside an amount of about R4-million, which equates to about an additional 2% of the payroll costs for 2008.
How many staff will be affected?
About 400 employees will benefit from the process of salaries harmonisation.
Will there be a change in service conditions for some staff?
The harmonisation of conditions of service process was concluded through an agreement between the NMMU and trade unions, such as the National Union of Tertiary Employees [Nutesa] and the National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union [Nehawu], in January 2006. In terms of this agreement several conditions of service have been standardised. One or two of these conditions have unfortunately decreased because of severe cost pressures on the institution.
Will staff be better off? Please provide examples.
It is not that simple to say whether staff are better off. The objective of the harmonisation was to bring all employees on par. Some were way ahead of others. An example of this would be the housing allowance — all employees now receive R1 000 a month, where in previous institutions some received R665, R805 (both ex-PET), R1 200 (ex-UPE) and R1 045 (ex-Vista) respectively.
Another example would be the introduction of the Peromnes job- grading system at the former Vista university (where no grading system existed in the past).
This resulted in some of the ex-Vista staff benefiting by being brought up to a salary notch commensurate with the grade of the job as it applied in the ex-UPE and ex-PET.
A further result from the merger is that all academic staff from ex-PET were also brought on to the Peromnes job-grading system.
All administrative staff above Peromnes grade nine now also accrue research leave (30 days a year on condition that a research output is produced) at the same rate as academic staff — this did not exist pre-merger in any of the institutions.
In practical terms a secretary studying towards a master’s degree is now also entitled to research leave.
The death benefit has been standardised at four times annual salary for all new employees. The funeral arrangement benefit equating to one month’s salary was also introduced. Hours of work have become more flexible to accommodate employees’ lifestyle needs.
Do former university staff get paid more than technikon staff (for example at professorial, junior academic and support staff levels)?
There are some disparities arising from the various pay practices applied at the two previous institutions. It is not simply a case of ex-UPE staff being more or less than the ex-PET staff.
Will it be costly and has the education department set money aside for this?
Yes, it is a very costly exercise, but one to which the NMMU is committed. The department of education provides merger-related support for non-salary and benefits changes, but not at all for staffing costs.
What happens to someone who earns a really high salary and his counterpart needs to catch up? Does he not get salary increases?
As part the section 89 rules (LRA of 1995) in terms of which the merger took place, salary retardation mechanisms will be introduced to manage such disparities.