BusinessLive reports that the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has hailed as a minor victory the agreement that ended its crippling strike in Tshwane on Thursday.
As part of the agreement that was reached with the city’s management during conciliation under the auspices of the local government bargaining council, the metro will “dismantle” with immediate effect a controversial 18% salary increase for group and divisional heads. Municipal employees embarked on very disruptive and damaging industrial action on Monday, demanding that the 18% wage increase be implemented to lower-level employees as well and be backdated to 2017. As part of the agreement that ended the strike, Samwu general secretary Koena Ramotlou said a once-off ex-gratia payment of R15,000 would be paid to workers earning less than R20,000 per month, R10,000 for those earning up to R30,000, and R7,000 for those earning more than R30,000. The payments would be implemented from Monday. The city has also agreed to embark on a benchmarking exercise on the payscales of other metro municipalities, which will be run over 60 days. Samwu’s deputy general secretary Dumisane Magagula commented: “It’s not necessarily a major victory, but it’s definitely a victory for now.”
- Read the full original of the above summarised report by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive
- Read Samwu’s press statement on the agreement at Samwu News
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