Johannesburg metro police and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) on Monday signed an agreement on wages and wage scales for metro officers.
Metro police chief Chris Ngcobo said the agreement would go before the Johannesburg City Council for approval once it returned from recess.
”Wages for uniformed and non-uniformed members are now comparable with other departments, which is something we are all excited about and something we can all agree upon,” Ngcobo said.
Trainees at the academy would receive a monthly stipend of R2 000 for six months, until they had completed the theoretical course. The trainee officers would then receive R4 200 per month while completing their practical training. After one year, and upon being made junior metro police officers, all officers would receive R8 700 per month.
After six years of duty officers would move into the median pay scale for their rank. After 12 years of duty they would receive wages according to the maximum wage scale for their rank.
The pay scales were increased to reward loyalty to the department.
”The dispute created serious problems. With those dealt with everything is back to normal.”
Ngcobo said all traffic offices were operating normally again.
Gabu Tugwana, spokesperson for the City of Johannesburg, which mediated the dispute, said that while the settlement would stretch the city’s resources, it was within reason.
The agreement, reached at 11pm on Friday, stipulated that all test stations, licence offices and other facilities would be back to normal by Monday, or the agreement would become null and void.
Samwu expressed appreciation for the manner in which the negotiations were conducted.
The union addressed some of its members on Saturday, who said they were ”more than happy” with the agreement. The union’s Johannesburg branch secretary, Dumisani Langa, said all Samwu members were back at work on Monday.
Langa promised that both the union and city departments would ”try our level best to address issues, such as this, at an earlier stage” and that collective bargaining would be used to resolve disputes in future.
The agreement would come into effect on July 1, along with the South African Local Government Association agreed wage increment of 8,3%.
Ngcobo also apologised to the citizens of Johannesburg for the ”exchange of gunfire” between metro officers and members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) last week after metro police blockaded major roads around the city centre.
He said reports from both the metro police and the SAPS were expected on the shooting. Management would then decide on disciplinary steps.
Langa, though, held firm that at no time had metro personnel used live ammunition. — Sapa