ANA reports that National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) members employed by the Department of Social Development (DSD) on Monday went on a full-blown strike across the country after negotiations over working conditions collapsed.
Last month, Nehawu mounted nation-wide protest action and delivered a memorandum of demands, but a solution to the dispute has yet to be reached. The union demands include the placement of assistant community development practitioners on the "correct salary" level, the occupational specific dispensation for social service professionals and occupations, the introduction of a rural allowance, the absorption of unemployed social workers on a permanent basis, and others. Bereng Soke, Nehawu general secretary, said that for more than a month since the submission of the memorandum, “the employer has failed to table a counter offer, only releasing an insulting propaganda statement." Negotiations apparently collapsed on Sunday night.
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