The Mercury reports that the Durban University of Technology (DUT) strike has entered its fifth week, after wage talks deadlocked and mediation failed.
University management met with the National Education Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) at the CCMA for mediation, but the parties failed to reach an agreement. Milton Estrice, spokesperson for the Crisis Committee appointed to facilitate talks between the parties, said the university was not budging on the offer it had been presenting to the workers for the last three weeks. “Management keeps coming with a fixed offer and telling us it’s their final offer, meaning there is no room for negotiation, whereas the staff has been willing to negotiate. Talks collapsed because of this lack of cooperation from the side of DUT,” Estrice stated. In anticipation of a repeat of clashes that occurred last week, there was a heavy police presents outside the university on Monday. However staff marched from campus to campus peacefully. Meantime, DUT management was adamant that the university’s academic year would start on Tuesday, despite the wage dispute not having been resolved.
- Read this report by Khumbuzile Mbuqe in full at The Mercury
- Read too, DUT lecturers to start on Tuesday, on page 6 of The New Age of 13 February 2018
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