Pretoria News reports that the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) is set to declare a dispute and request a strike certificate after wage negotiations collapsed.

The union said wage negotiations for municipal workers under the auspices of the SA Local Government Bargaining Council collapsed as a result of the continued “arrogance” of the SA Local Government Association (Salga), which represents the country’s 257 municipalities. Samwu indicated that with negotiations having failed to yield results, members have gone back to their original demands for a single year’s wage agreement; a R4,000 salary increase for all workers under the auspices of the bargaining council; a R15,000 sectoral minimum wage; and a R3,500 housing allowance for all workers. The demands also include a number of other issues. Samwu’s Dumisane Magagula said the facilitator in the bargaining council did a good job, but after an extensive mandate-taking process by the union, a majority of its members rejected the proposal and found it to be a repetition of the employer’s arguments. “The proposal failed to consider the demands that had been put forward by workers. It should be mentioned that all parties, including Samwu and the other trade union Imatu rejected the facilitator’s proposal,” Magagula advised.

• Read the original of the report in the above regard by James Mahlokwane at Pretoria News
• Read too, Local government wage dispute hits bump as talks with labour break down, at Fin24

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