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The Citizen reports on discontent among staff members at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT), south of Johannesburg. This after the VUT management issued letters to some staff members that their contracts would come to an end within the next two to six months.
The VUT also took a decision last year to permanently shut down its satellite campuses in Secunda, Ekurhuleni and Upington. On Monday morning, disgruntled staff members were seen standing outside the university entrance waiting to be addressed by their union leadership about the way forward, after VUT obtained a court interdict against their industrial action, which was initially scheduled to commence that day. Joseph Radebe from the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) reported that they had already obtained a certificate to strike over a number of concerns. He indicated further: “Among the issues workers are not happy about include the fact that employees have not had a salary increase since 2021, and it was only last year when management decided to give workers a once-off payment citing financial difficulties at the university. All contracts for contract workers have over the years always been renewed on a three-year basis, but that has since changed when contract workers were told by management that they now only have between two and six months left and that their contracts will not be renewed.” According to Radebe, the university currently has about 850 contract workers, out of which about 160 are going to be affected by management’s decision not to renew the contracts. “Workers will definitely embark on the strike action before the end of this week. We are just busy finalising all the logistics and making sure that the industrial action is done under the confines of the labour laws,” Radebe said. Responding to the concerns raised by workers, VUT said employees were expected to heed the interdict and not participate in the strike.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Stephen Tau at The Citizen (subscriber access only)
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