CCMA intervenes in Samwu’s illegal Tshwane strike

The Tshwane metro, which rejected attempts last month by the Gauteng government to mediate in a protracted and unlawful strike by the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), has joined efforts to resolve the impasse.

Cameron Morajane, director of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) said the body has been “engaging with the parties in a S[ection] 150 public interest intervention. The process is still ongoing. Parties have been in full co-operation with the CCMA”.

Morajane said the intervention would continue for “as long as parties are prepared to engage”.

Samwu Gauteng provincial secretary Mpho Tladinyane said: “We will wait for the outcome of the CCMA process and take it from there.”

Samwu members downed tools on July 26, demanding the metro implement a 5.4% wage increase — the last leg of a three-year wage agreement signed at the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in 2021. Inflation as measured by the consumer price index stood at 4.8% in August, up from a rate of 4.7% in July.

The city, which had refused to negotiate with the union, says it doesn’t have the R600m required for the agreement and has unsuccessfully applied to the SALGBC for an exemption.

The illegal strike has seen municipal property such as garbage trucks and other infrastructure vandalised and destroyed. In some cases non-striking employees had been threatened and prevented from reporting to work and/or carrying out their duties, the city said. More than 120 striking workers have been fired.

“The city will continue to work with law enforcement to protect our employees, residents and the infrastructure that serves both. We will do everything to protect jobs and lead the capital city to financial recovery,” the metro said in a statement.

“This involves making extremely difficult decisions and having the courage and integrity to carry them out. What makes the job easier is the realisation that if these decisions are not carried out, the consequences will be far more devastating for the people of Tshwane.”

ActionSA, which is part of the multiparty coalition running the metro, welcomed the city’s decision to meet Samwu.

“We are sympathetic to the fact that Tshwane is under financial pressure, but parties must negotiate to find each other,” said ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont, adding that refusing to negotiate would “compound labour instability and service delivery [breakdown]”.

Samwu’s demands for higher wages in Tshwane are not uncommon. In July 2020, the metro implemented a 6.25% pay rise that added R45m to the monthly wage bill. 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 from unions to implement a benchmarking agreement aimed at putting Tshwane municipal employees’ wages on par with those of other big municipalities.

At the time the city warned the decision was likely to put extra strain on its finances 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 that would was set to cost the city R300m.

mkentanel@businesslive.co.za