COSATU Call Center Number 010 002 2590

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has recently launched a new call center to provide much-needed assistance to workers facing labour-related challenges. This dedicated resource aims to offer support, information, and guidance to both members of COSATU-affiliated unions and unorganized workers, ensuring that they have a place to turn for help with workplace issues.

labour news roundup

UNION MATTERS

COSATU

Cosatu, Metro Rail and CCCI met this week to discuss the crisis in the rail system and arrived at the following conclusions.

  • The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry will advise its members to not discipline or deduct money from workers who arrive at work late due to the problems on the trains.
  • Metro Rail has not been able to conclude the census of the number of commuters in the rail system at any given point of time, but that work is in the process of being concluded.
  • The parties will work together to get National Government and National Prasa to allocate resources to the Province to address the crisis that exist.
  • Cosatu is going to embark on protest and strike action on the 19 May to compel urgent attention to the rail crisis, from all authorities.

Cosatu will be reporting to Nedlac to authorise the action contemplated for the 19 May 2016 to be legal and protected strike.

LIMUSA

An arbitration hearing over an organisational rights dispute between the Liberated Metalworkers Union of SA (Limusa) and Toyota SA and the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has been adjourned until next week.

The CCMA hearing took place in Durban.  Limusa secretary Cedric Gina previously claimed the dispute had been going on for more than a year after several attempts by Toyota SA and Numsa to block Limusa from representing the interests of its members and denying workers their right of freedom of association.  Toyotas SA has claimed the number of Limusa members at the company fell “far short” of the applicable threshold for the union to be recognised by the motor manufacturer.

CWU

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is planning a strike at the SA Post Office (Sapo) next week.  The union says this will happen on Thursday and Friday, before they embark on an indefinite strike over salary increases.
The workers claim they have not received a salary increase in the last two years.

CWU spokesman Clyde Mervin said:  “We must go to the streets so that we can start pushing government to give the Post Office enough funding so that workers can at least be at peace.”  Sapo CEO Mark Barnes said another strike would have a devastating impact on the organisation’s services.

NUM

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is extremely worried that LafargeHolcim South Africa has reneged on its commitment for salary adjustment to close the wage gaps per job category.The NUM and LafargeHolcim South Africa signed a wage agreement this year in which the two parties agreed to set up a committee comprising of the union and the company representatives that will work together to address the wage gaps per job category.

“The company has now declared a dispute with the NUM at the CCMA. We do not know what they are challenging, we have asked them to send us a referral and they have not done so. This company does not want to comply with the equalisation of salaries as agreed in the wage agreement that the two parties signed this year,” said Petrus Mositi: NUM Full-Time Shop Steward at LafargeHolcim.

The committee was given a task to closing the wage gaps per job category by conducting a thorough analysis using the proposed principles from the union and the action plan from the management. The final terms of reference were going to be concluded by the committee. LafargeHolcim South Africa was supposed to furnish the pay-scales pertaining to the bargaining unit to the committee by 01 March 2016. The exercise was supposed to be concluded by the end of April 2016.

POPCRU

The Police and Prisons Civil Union is deeply concerned about the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) move to revise the Police training programme from a period of 24 months to a mere 8 months.The Police’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee is pursuing a meeting with the SAPS to discuss its new training programme.

While the move is aimed at a more proactive policing qualification some officers say this will compromise training and the police.Popcru is particularly concerned and raised the alarm to challenge the new system. The union is also claiming it wasn’t consulted about the proposed changes.The SAPS is adamant this is in line with a back-to-basics policing approach, insisting that it’s aimed at meeting operational needs.