Today's Labour News
This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
SA scientists closely monitoring rise in new Covid cases, which have more than doubled in past week
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BL Premium reports that SA scientists are closely monitoring a rapid rise in new coronavirus infections, which have more than doubled in the past week, but say it is too soon to tell whether there will be a similar upswing in hospital admissions.
Treasury signals tough stance ahead of upcoming public sector wage talks
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BL Premium reports that the national Treasury has set the tone for tough wage negotiations with public sector unions by outlining budgetary constraints and a commitment to keep spending in check.
Striking unions to meet Sibanye-Stillwater on Tuesday over final settlement offer
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BL Premium reports that the two unions striking at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations will meet management on Tuesday to table their consolidated response to the producer’s final settlement offer of a R850 wage hike each year for three years for the lowest-paid employees.
Teacher shortages at inner-city schools to worsen after home affairs cancels Zimbabwe exemption permits
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BusinessLive reports that thousands of Zimbabwean teachers who hold exemption permits may be forced to return to their home country if they fail to secure a visa before the end of the year.
Numsa welcomes Comair’s withdrawal of notice to slash workers’ wages
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BL Premium reports that in what it termed a victory for workers, the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) announced on Friday that it had received correspondence from Comair that the flight operator was formally withdrawing a notice to reduce worker benefits and conditions of employment.
Passenger bus operators offer unions revised 6% wage increase, parties to meet again Tuesday
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BL Premium reports that passenger bus operators have again increased their wage offer to unions, now to 6%, in a bid to strike a wage hike deal and avoid possible strike action.
Roundup on Monday, 25 April 2022 of weekend labour reports
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In our roundup of weekend news, see
summaries of our selection of South African
labour-related stories that appeared since
Friday, 22 April 2022.
Sibanye-Stillwater ups wage offer to NUM and Amcu in a bid to end seven-week long strike at its gold operations
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BL Premium reports that Sibanye-Stillwater has revised its wage offer in an attempt to end a seven-week long strike at its gold operations that has cost workers nearly R1bn in wages.
Four police officers suspended over fire at parliament redeployed elsewhere
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TimesLive reports that four police officers suspended after the fire in parliament earlier this year have been redeployed to other areas.
Labour Court orders reinstatement of KwaZulu-Natal teacher after finding no ‘deemed dismissal’
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News24 reports that the Labour Court has ordered the reinstatement of a KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) teacher after she was deemed to have been dismissed in August 2017.
Prasa to take reinstatement of Zolani Matthews as CEO on review to Labour Court
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TimesLive reports that the board of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) has decided against reinstating its erstwhile CEO Zolani Matthews despite an arbitration ruling ordering that he should get his job back.
Morning roundup of labour news on Friday, 22 April 2022
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In our Friday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
Solidarity creates private crisis fund and donates R250,000 to KZN flood victims
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Trade union Solidarity announced on Wednesday that it would be donating R250,000 to the Solidarity Movement’s Crisis Fund to ensure that people who have been hit by the catastrophic floods in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) get help.
Informal traders call for government to reduce cost of chicken by cutting VAT and other taxes
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SowetanLive reports that the SA Informal Traders Alliance (Saita) has called on the government to remove tariff taxes and VAT on chicken products.
Morning roundup of labour news on Thursday, 21 April 2022
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In our Thursday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
Residents of Kirkwood join farm workers to shut down the Eastern Cape town on Wednesday
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GroundUp reports that over 2,000 farm workers and residents of Kirkwood and Addo in the Sundays River Valley Municipality, Eastern Cape, shut down parts of Kirkwood on Wednesday morning.
Defence minister demands action by SANDF over R30m wasted on Cuban Covid-19 drug
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TimesLive reports that defence and military veterans minister Thandi Modise has demanded that all defence force members involved in the illegal procurement of an unregistered Covid-19 drug from Cuba must face the consequences as soon as possible.
Mangaung's acting city manager forcefully removed from office after contract expired
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News24 reports that Mzingisi Nkungwana, who had been acting city manager of Mangaung, had to be forcefully removed from his office.
Consumer inflation accelerated to 5.9% in March, but remained within Reserve Bank target band
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BusinessLive reports that Stats SA announced on Wednesday that annual consumer price inflation (CPI) quickened from 5.7% in February to 5.9% in March, but remained just below the upper band of the SA Reserve Bank’s target range.
Massmart calls for easier visa rules to bring in scarce skills and tourists
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BL Premium reports that Massmart chair Kuseni Dlamini writes in the company’s annual report that SA needs to make it easier for skilled individuals from abroad to work in the country and for tourists to apply for visas.
Trade union Sandu warns that politics and budget cuts impacting the work of SANDF
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EWN reports that the SA National Defence Union (Sandu) has raised concerns about the deployment of troops to KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape amid budget cuts.
University of Johannesburg’s new blockchain-based features to enhance the security of graduate certificates
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Saturday Star reports that the University of Johannesburg (UJ) is the first South African institution to enhance the security of its certificates by adding blockchain-based security features to them.
Axed Prasa boss must be reinstated, arbitration hearing rules
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Fin24 reports that axed Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa) CEO Zolani Matthews is free to return to his office following an arbitration ruling in his favour.
Solidarity takes BLF to court for not apologising for ‘appalling’ Hoërskool Driehoek comments
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The Citizen reports trade union Solidarity has filed a case of contempt of court against Black First Land First (BLF) after the organisation failed to apologise and pay compensation to the victims of the Hoërskool Driehoek bridge collapse in terms of a court order issued against it earlier this year.
Morning roundup of labour news on Wednesday, 20 April 2022
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In our Wednesday morning roundup, see
summaries of our selection of recent South African
labour-related reports.
In move to implement Mpati commission recommendation, PIC appoints separate chief investment officer
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BL Premium reports that the Public Investment Corporation (PIC) has taken a step in implementing recommendations of the report by Judge Lex Mpati by appointing Kabelo Rikhotso as its chief investment officer.
Over R12m recouped from state workers who claimed social grants illegally
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BL Premium reports that social development minister Lindiwe Zulu has told parliament that a total of R12.6m has been recovered from government employees who illegally claimed social grants meant for needy and vulnerable people.
Sibanye-Stillwater strikers ‘steadfast’ as industrial action at gold mines continues
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BL Premium reports that there seems to be no end in sight to the protracted strike action at Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold operations over wage increases.
Transport union Towu hints at not accepting revised wage offer by bus operators
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BL Premium reports that one of the unions in the bus sector has given the strongest indication yet that it might not accept the employers’ revised wage offer of 4.5%, which averted a possible strike over the Easter long weekend.
Sibanye-Stillwater’s gold wage talks just got tougher on threat of secondary strike at producer’s platinum operations
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Business Times reports that platinum wage negotiations at Sibanye-Stillwater this year are expected to be especially tough after majority unions at the group’s gold mines unveiled plans for a secondary strike to up the ante in their fight for higher wages.