The National Education, Health, and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has warned of a possible public service strike if wage negotiations are further delayed.
Nehawu “condemns the delaying tactics dished out by the employer” at the current public service wage negotiations at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), the union secretariat said in a statement.
At the special PSCBC meeting on October 6, labour had tabled its consolidated demands and the PSCBC had agreed that the employer would respond to labour’s demands on October 20. This meeting was also used to finalise the wage negotiations timetable. On October 20 the employer failed to table an offer as agreed, but instead committed to a new date, November 23, to respond to labour’s demands, the statement said.
On November 23 a special PSCBC meeting was convened with a view to receiving an offer or response from the employer. “Unfortunately the employer reported that they are still not ready or have not finalised their internal mandating processes. After long, heated deliberations the employer made a new commitment to revert back to [the] PSCBC on the 7th December 2017.”
Thereafter, parties at the PSCBC had agreed that between November 23 and December 7, a pre-negotiation session would be convened with a view to “package and prioritise” issues in preparation for full-blown negotiations starting from December 7.
“We hope the employer will come prepared for these negotiations, as we will no longer tolerate any further delays. As Nehawu, we call on the employer to desist from these silly antics they have been engaging in at the negotiations.
“These antics borders on intentions to collapse the negotiations. We will no longer tolerate any further delays in these negotiations and we hope that the employer will from now on take the process more seriously. Any further delays will infuriate workers and eventually push them to withdraw their labour power, resulting in a strike.
“We want to assure our members and workers that we shall ensure that their demands will be met and that no amount of ill-discipline from the employer will deter us,” the statement said.
– African News Agency (ANA)
