Samwu speaks to members about way forward regarding Tshwane strike

The SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), which is behind an illegal wage strike in Tshwane, was engaging its members on Monday about the way forward, after the metro filed an application to be exempted from implementing a pay deal reached in the bargaining council by parties.

The industrial action, which has been declared unlawful and illegal by the labour court, will enter its third week on Wednesday. It began with a march by Samwu members to municipal headquarters, Tshwane House on July 26, demanding the capital city implement a 5.4% pay increase reached in the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in 2021.

The Tshwane metro, which is run by a DA-led multiparty coalition, has said it does not have money to implement the agreement.

Headline inflation cooled to 5.4% in June, from 6.3% in May, reaching a 13-month low and moving to within the upper limit of the Reserve Bank’s 3%-6% target range, due to slowing food and transport prices, according to Stats SA.

Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said on Sunday the exemption application would be heard at the SALGBC later in August.

“The city’s application is anchored on irrefutable evidence of its financial position, which is the main reason there was no budget appropriation for salary and wage increases for the 2023/24 financial year,” Bokaba said.

“The unfunded budget was approved by the majority of parties represented in council at the end of May this year and the funding plan was given the green light by both provincial and national Treasury. The city is working hard to stabilise its finances through, inter alia, reducing expenditure and increasing revenue collection rate to 95%, as directed by the national Treasury.”

Samwu general secretary Dumisane Magagula said a statement would be released after it had held discussions.

The city has dismissed 93 employees for taking part in the illegal strike and “more dismissal letters are in the process of being issued” to striking workers.

Samwu, the biggest local government union representing about 160,000 of the country’s nearly 300,000 municipal workers, is affiliated to labour federation Cosatu, a key ally of the governing ANC.

In July 2020, the Tshwane metro implemented a 6.25% pay rise that increased the city’s wage bill by R45m a month. The 6.25% increase was part of the last leg of a three-year wage hike agreement signed at the SALGBC in 2018.

In August 2020, the capital city bowed to pressure by unions including Samwu to implement a benchmarking agreement aimed at putting Tshwane municipal employees’ wages on par with those of other top municipalities.

It was said at the time that the decision was likely to put extra strain on metro finances already under pressure as residents, companies and government departments struggled to pay for services during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Samwu later opposed a vetting process to remove ghost employees from the payroll. The decision to withhold the pay of more than 7,000 workers came two weeks after Tshwane agreed to implement the benchmarking agreement, which was set to cost the city R300m.

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za