Samwu suspends strike

Fri, 16 May 2008

The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) suspended its strike in Tshwane on Wednesday.

"We have suspended the strike and all our members will be getting back to work on Monday," said Samwu spokesperson Zebulon Monkoe.

Monkoe said negotiations would continue until Friday, when an agreement with the employer was expected to be finalised.

"We will use Thursday and Friday to inform all our members who did not attend today's meeting that the strike has been suspended."

Union members downed their tools last Monday demanding that the city halt its restructuring process, employ all its workers directly and stop investigations into outsourcing the bus service.

Services such as refuse collection and municipal bus transport have been severely disrupted.

Garbage has been piling up with residents being left to dispose of the refuse themselves.

A meeting between the union and the city was held on Wednesday.

Meanwhile the union’s East Rand branch announced that it will interdict the Ekurhuleni Municipality in the Labour Court in Johannesburg on Thursday, following a deduction of municipal workers' salaries without an agreement, the union said.

"The municipality made huge deductions from workers' salaries last year, saying that these were for rates arrears," said Samwu East Rand Branch Secretary Koena Ramotlou.

"R0 wage packets"

"Workers who owed about R600 in arrears were suddenly told that they owed huge amounts like R20 000, and massive deductions were made from their salaries ... Many workers went home with R0 wage packets."

He said Samwu and been engaging with the municipality since October 2007, but did not have any results.

"The municipality now wants to reach an out of court settlement but Samwu is pursuing an interdict to settle this matter legally," Ramotlou said.

The Samwu East Rand Branch will also serve employers with a notice to strike from 27 May onwards.

Some of the workers demands are:

— That the most favourable stand-by allowance be paid to all relevant workers.

— All contract employees must be integrated into the municipality from 1 July permanently.

— The municipality must investigate the shooting of workers on 20 November, 2006. (They were allegedly shot by Ekhuruleni Metro Police Chief Robert McBride).

— Workers must be paid at the same grade system as councillors.

— Separate operating entities must not be created and new departments must be created if existing departments need support.