In our Friday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
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DA takes fight against extension of state of disaster to court BusinessLive reports that the Democratic Alliance (DA) has instructed its lawyers to bring an urgent court application to challenge an “irrational and unreasonable” extension of the state of disaster in SA. The party would also seek to bring to an end to the lockdown regulations, leader John Steenhuisen said. He indicated on Thursday: “It’s not enough to end the state of disaster. The lockdown itself must end. It can’t just become permanent legislation, as the government is trying to do. When the government moves lockdown regulations into permanent legislation instead, the DA will mount a legal challenge to those too. The lockdown is not in SA’s best interest. On the contrary, it is pushing more and more people into joblessness and deeper into poverty.” He made the announcement two days after co-operative governance and traditional affairs minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma signed off on an extension to the state of disaster until 15 April. At the end of March, SA will have been under a state of disaster for two years. Steenhuisen said his party would not allow the state of disaster to be “glibly” extended month after month. The decision to extend the state of disaster was no longer about fighting the spread of Covid-19 but rather the ANC’s desperation to cling to power, Steenhuisen claimed. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nonkululeko Njilo at BusinessLive. Read too, We will not be reckless in lifting State of Disaster, says Ramaphosa, at IOL New Covid-19 regulations ‘detached from reality’, says Solidarity On Thursday, Solidarity strongly condemned proposed regulations issued by Health Minister Joe Phaahla as well as by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi earlier in the week to “transfer the current state of disaster”. The trade union also announced its readiness to participate in the legal process and to litigate if the various ministers should continue with the implementation of these regulations. According to Solidarity, the proposed regulations were completely impractical and clearly not well thought through. Connie Mulder, head of the Solidarity Research Institute (SRI), commented: “Almost all of these regulations represent the type of measures that had little or no impact during the lockdown. Clearly no rational motivation exists for this, and one gets the impression that the government is now simply regulating for the sake of regulating. The chances that even a single person’s life would be saved by these regulations are very slim, while the regulations can indeed cause incredible economic and social damage. This is totally insane.” Noting that it was only in SA where the government required permanent measures to be in place that in effect would establish a permanent state of disaster, Mulder added: “These proposed regulations are not only harmful; they are absurd, illogical and indicate a government that is completely disconnected from reality” Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Solidarity News. Read too, New Covid code at workplace sparks a debate, at The Citizen Busa scraps bid to get certainty from ConCourt about vaccine mandates BL Premium reports that Business Unity SA (Busa) has shelved its planned application to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) for a directive on Covid-19 vaccine mandates in workplaces. It has cited the government’s planned health and workplace regulations, which will kick in when the state of disaster ends, as sufficient for the implementation of a mandate. Legal advice that Busa has received suggests there is no need to approach SA’s apex court given that some companies have already implemented the practice and lower courts have upheld the rights of the employer. “We are satisfied that a vaccine mandate is in the public good. We think government’s planned health and workplace regulations will be sufficient in defence of the rights of the employer,” Busa CEO Cas Coovadia indicated. He added that Busa would “support” employers in any challenge to the practice launched by employees. The Labour Court and the CCMA have upheld the decisions of several employers to either suspend or dismiss employees who refused to get vaccinated or to take weekly tests. Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi this week published new rules for managing Covid-19 in the workplace. The rules, which will come into effect when the national state of disaster is lifted, include reaffirming employers’ rights to introduce vaccine mandates and tightening the grounds on which employees may refuse to get jabbed. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Hajra Omarjee at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Nehawu denies that it disrupted Unisa graduation ceremony, claims double booking was made News24 reports that the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) has denied the University of SA’s (Unisa’s) claim that protesters disrupted a graduation ceremony on Tuesday. In a statement, Unisa advised that it had postponed all scheduled graduation ceremonies and that alternative arrangements would be made for graduates who were inconvenienced by the disruption. Unisa spokesperson Victor Dlamini indicated that management was talking to Nehawu about the issues that had led to the disruption as well as rules of engagement when employees exercised their right to protest. But Nehawu claimed the venue had been double booked. Nehawu's Unisa secretary, Tshembani Baloyi, said: "We have apologised numerous times and said that we did not necessarily disrupt the graduations. What happened was, on Friday we asked for permission to use the venue from management ... which we received, and it was signed. Only for us to find when our meeting was about to start that the graduations were also taking place in the very same hall. When we realised there was a [double] booking, we opted [to] have a discussion with the employer to try and resolve this issue." He added that Nehawu's protest stemmed from claims the institution had failed to honour a wage agreement that was signed on 17 January 2022. "We call on the management of Unisa to honour the signed collective agreement and pay our members and workers what is due to them as per the signed collective agreement which is binding to all parties. Failure to do so will leave us with no option other than [to take] the battle to the streets," Baloyi said. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Iavan Pijoos at News24 Contract employees recruited during pandemic protest to demand that Gauteng health department gives them permanent jobs GroundUp reports that over 200 members of the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (NUPSAW) protested at the offices of the Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH) on Thursday morning. The protstors said they wanted community health workers and workers employed under the Expanded Public Works Programme, among others, to be brought onto the department’s staff. The department has announced plans to terminate the contracts of over 800 health workers recruited during the Covid-19 pandemic. NUPSAW Gauteng provincial chairperson Sibusiso Nkasa said workers wanted the department to permanently employ all contract workers who have worked hard throughout the pandemic. Solly Malema, general secretary of NUPSAW, indicated: “Community healthcare workers have been at the forefront of the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, but they are still neglected. We are marching today and saying the department must immediately withdraw all the letters of termination of employment that were handed to our workers. Today they must listen to us, otherwise we will camp here again.” Before the protest on Thursday, workers, including some affiliated to the SA Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), held a night vigil outside the offices of the provincial health department. GDoH spokesperson Kwara Kekana indicated that the department would have liked to retain all the temporary staff appointed during the pandemic, but the current budget did not allow that. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Chris Gilili at GroundUp Driving and licensing centres resume operations in Tshwane after weeks of protests The Citizen reports that operations are back to normal at Tshwane licensing centres following weeks of closure that saw the driving and learner license test bookings services interrupted across the region. Members of the National Driving School Association of SA (NDSASA) took to the streets to protest against the NaTIS online booking system and to demand that the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) should suspend the system which it implemented together with the Department of Roads and Transport. The protests saw a number of centres closing down and services being interrupted around Tshwane region. The City of Tshwane on Thursday announced the resumption of services in Akasia, Bronkhorstspruit, Centurion, Rayton, and Watloo. The City also assured residents that its technicians have gradually begun the process of restoring power to some areas that have experienced prolonged outages amid the “threats and intimidation that they have been subjected to by pockets of employees that are involved in an unlawful and unprotected strike action”. Tshwane has experienced a series of outages affecting at least four regions due to the strike. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Siyanda Ndlovu at The Citizen
As Cosatu national elective congress looms, Sadtu in favour of stability BL Premium reports that with the SA Congress of Trade Unions (Cosatu) set to elect a new leadership during its national congress in September, the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) says it is in favour of “stability” in the labour federation. Sadtu is a key Cosatu affiliate, boasting a membership of about 260,000. Cosatu elects new leaders every four years. During its elective congress in 2018, Zingiswa Losi succeeded S’dumo Dlamini as president. The new leadership will determine the kind of support President Cyril Ramaphosa will receive for his campaign to be re-elected ANC leader during the governing party’s national elective congress in December. Losi is a close Ramaphosa ally and Cosatu is part of the tripartite alliance with the ANC and SACP. When asked about his union’s leadership preferences, Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke said on Thursday that his union was “in favour of stability” in the labour federation. He went on to explain: “By that I don’t mean there can be no contestations. If they [contestations] are informed by the current epoch, then it’s fine. But if they are about people wanting to bring change that is not necessary, then we should avoid that. The congress must not be about the election, but must focus on policy formulation, then we can discuss what type of leadership do you want [to implement those policies].” It is not yet clear whether Losi will stand for re-election. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Luyolo Mkentane at BusinessLive (subscriber access only) Vavi rejects Saftu’s suspension, asks why he must answer “wild allegations’ EWN reports that Zwelinzima Vavi, general secretary of the SA Federation of Trade Union (Saftu), has rejected a decision to place him on precautionary suspension, pending an investigation into allegations of serious misconduct, as ‘unlawful. This was in response to a letter giving notice of intention to suspend him, in which he was given until close of business on Thursday to give reasons why he should not be suspended. In his response, Vavi said the ‘so-called decision’ to suspend him with immediate effect had already been taken in his presence at the meeting of the federation’s national office bearers (NoBs) on Tuesday. Vavi claimed no allegations had been put to him in the meeting and questioned why he had not been given full details of the alleged transgression of the administration and finance policy. “Why must I even answer your deliberately vague, spurious, wild, and unsubstantiated allegations. It seems evident that these wild allegations are designed to cast the net wide in order to justify a 'political decision' taken elsewhere, which has nothing to do with the allegations," Vavi asserted. He did, however, indicate that Saftu national treasurer Motshwari Lecogo had presented credit card transactions, including R1,800 airtime, Gautrain and Bolt expenditures. Vavi said he would compile a detailed account of all the transactions and present them to the national finance committee. He also indicated that under the circumstances, he was entitled by law to continue to report for duty as per normal. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Masechaba Sefularo at EWN. Read too, It’s Zwelinzima Vavi vs Irvin Jim ahead of watershed Saftu NEC meeting, at Sunday Times Daily Sactwu members defend their rights and raise concerns over proposed new labour law amendments Cape Argus reports that members of the Cosatu-affiliated Southern African Clothing and Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) convened on Wednesday in Cape Town where the union held a protest to voice concerns about proposed labour law amendments recently tabled at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). The protest was held outside the Southern Sun Hotel where Sactwu’s National Bargaining Conference was also under way. “As Cosatu, we are deeply angered that the Department of Employment and Labour has tabled a shopping list of proposed amendments to our labour laws at Nedlac. These laws will gut all the progressive laws that unions have struggled to win for workers over many decades,” said Cosatu deputy president Mike Shingange, who was at the protest. Some of the government’s proposals included exempting SMMEs from collective bargaining, reducing retrenchment payments, extending probation periods for new workers and removing protections from dismissals and retrenchments rights from them, as well as allowing for dismissals to be expedited. Shingange said these proposals would also remove and reduce the labour rights and protections of workers above a certain income and who were considered to be white collar workers, and increase national minimum wage exemption amounts from 10% to 30%. Sactwu said that while it was still early days for the proposed labour law amendments, it was important to show their discontentment right from the beginning as Cosatu had already commenced discussions on proposals they thought should be included in new labour law legislation. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kristin Engel at Cape Argus
Government suggests that those who can work from home should do so if petrol price gets any worse Cape Argus reports that the government is recommending working from home as an energy saving measure if, as looks likely, the price of fuel gets to R24 per litre as a result of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. International oil prices have soared to record levels in recent weeks because of the conflict and concerns over Russian oil supplies. Department of Mineral Resources and Energy deputy director-general Tseliso Maqubela said the government thought companies that could have their people work from home would in that way be saving their workers from rocketing transport costs. Addressing Parliament’s portfolio committee on mineral resources and energy on possible alternatives and considerations in addressing increases in fuel prices, Maqubela said working from home needed to be considered as an option. He also said the government was looking into the possibility of fuel rationing and at how many litres each motorist would be allowed per visit to the petrol station if rationing became a fact of life. Commenting on mid-month fuel data released by the Central Energy Fund (CEF), AA spokesperson Layton Beard said the current data was projecting fuel prices to touch on R24 a litre for petrol and R23.60 for diesel. “If realised at month end, these will be the biggest increases to fuel prices in South Africa’s history and will, undoubtedly, have major ramifications for all consumers and the economy in general,” he said. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Mwangi Githahu at Cape Argus
Parliament re-advertises secretary post that’s been vacant since sacking of Gengezi Mgidlana in 2019 EWN reports that it’s back to square one for Parliament as its search for someone to fill its top administrative post continues. Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula was to have announced a new secretary to Parliament by 1 April 2022, but on Thursday she told the National Assembly’s programming committee that the job would be readvertised. Parliament has been without a permanent secretary since the sacking of Gengezi Mgidlana in 2019. Since then, his deputy, Baby Tyawa, has been acting in the position. The parliamentary branch of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union has been pushing for the appointment of the CEO of the SA Local Government Association (Salga), Xolile George, but it appears his candidacy has now fallen away. Mapisa-Nqakula told MPs that Parliament had tried hard to fill the post but had not succeeded. “We have not won. So, we are now proceeding to advertise… and if it is possible that we are able to secure space this weekend, we will advertise on Sunday, failing which it will be the following week,” she advised. Read the original of the report in the above regard by Gaye Davis at EWN Other internet posting(s) in this news category
Medical staff leave beleaguered Charlotte Maxeke Hospital for greener pastures City Press reports that about 200 staff members have resigned from Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Hospital citing better remuneration elsewhere and travelling costs. According to Gauteng Health MEC Nomathemba Mokgethi, the staff members began resigning in May last year after sections of the hospital were gutted by a fire in April. The provincial health department has since been unable to get the facility fully operational. The hospital departments which remain closed include casualty, the infectious diseases wards and the mental health wing. Mokgethi said that before the fire there had been a total of 4,982 staff members, but this has dropped to 4,812 due to the resignations of 91 nurses and 68 doctors. The reduction of staff has been due to resignation, retirement, death and expired contracts. Mokgethi indicated: “The staff resignations are related to better remuneration, promotions and travel costs between home and work.” She added that there was a shortage of professional nurses, critical care specialists and psychiatrically trained nurses. DA Shadow Health MEC Jack Bloom said he was not surprised by the resignations as staff morale was low. The hospital currently has 677 vacant posts made of 355 nurses, 88 medical personnel, 209 admin and support staff and 25 allied worker posts. Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Yoliswa Sobuwa at City Press (subscriber access only)
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