Pretoria - Municipal workers affiliated to the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) in Tshwane will be striking tomorrow to show their dissatisfaction over the 0% wage and salary increase for 2023/24 passed by the council in June.
Regional union secretary Precious Theledi said Samwu decided to march to Tshwane House tomorrow, with a view to express concern about salaries not being increased, affecting workers bearing the brunt of the high cost of living.
Workers are to convene at Marabastad old bus depot in the morning before they depart to Tshwane House to air their grievances.
MMC for Finance Peter Sutton said recently that the metro would apply for exemption from the salary and wage collective agreement with workers’ unions.
He said the stance was informed by the National Treasury guideline, which advised the City to reduce its expenditure by 30%.
Executive mayor Cilliers Brink has also bemoaned the fact that the City's wage bill was exorbitant, with at least 39% of the municipal budget being spent on salaries.
Theledi said: “We will march to Tshwane House and demonstrate that things are expensive, and encourage the City to change its mind in terms of applying for another exemption from the salary and wage collective agreement.” She added that the City was also fighting to extricate itself from the salary and wage collective agreement for the 2021/22 financial year.
The strike was aimed at pressuring the employer to “look for money somewhere” to alleviate workers’ economic hardships.
“Workers are unable to afford things at the moment. You can’t be expecting workers to work while they have not been receiving increases for two years,” she said.
Tomorrow’s strike comes on the back of reports that the union was mired in controversy.
This emanates from an audio recording in which a senior municipal official revealed an alleged plot to “capture” Samwu by luring its leaders with promotions and financial benefits.
In the recording, the official, Ronald Oppelt, speaks to Nyiko Mahumani, a head of the law firm Mahumani Incorporated, which is contracted to the City, about the strategy the City employed to weaken the union’s activities.
Oppelt says Samwu national general secretary Nkhetheni Muthavhi benefited from the alleged strategy to manage the union through his appointment as a municipal director.Gauteng Samwu provincial secretary Mpho Tladinyane also allegedly benefited through a law firm said to be getting contracts from the City, according to the recording. Both have dismissed the allegations as untrue.
Pretoria News