The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] is angered by the Department of Public Service and Administration [DPSA] and National Department of Health [NDOH] for breaching the settlement agreement of the public service strike.
The Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council [PSCBC] facilitation process managed to reach a Settlement Agreement which culminated into the suspension of our national public service strike.
As NEHAWU, we are flabbergasted to discover that hardly before the ink has dried-up on the settlement, the DPSA and NDOH have gone out of their way to disregard and disrespect the settlement agreement in particular paragraph 1.1. (c) (ii) which stipulates that the employer will implement the “no work, no pay” principle in cases where clear evidence existed that a member willingly participated in the protected strike action. Deductions in respect of no work no pay as a practice shall be made for employees in essential and non-essential services as follows:
- Deductions shall be staggered over a period of 4 months.
- The formula to determine a day’s work shall be annual basic salary divided by 365 and shall be based on working hours lost.
The National Department of Health and several Provincial Departments of Health have implemented the “no-work-no-pay” principle selectively to certain members and shop stewards of the union in respect of their remuneration for February/March 2023, which was to be paid on the 15th March 2023.
This has been done by recalling our shop stewards and members’ entire salaries, translating to our members not being paid any form of remuneration in respect of the days on which they have worked during the relevant period until now. Withholding salaries of workers is unlawful and in breach of the conditions of service which also amounts to a contravention of the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 75 of 1997 (“BCEA”).
On the 16th March 2023 the national union has through its lawyers written to the DPSA and NDOH instructing them to pay our members and workers their salaries immediately and failure to do so, we will launch an urgent application in the Labour Court for appropriate relief.
This deliberate breach of the settlement agreement especially by NDOH has the hallmarks of Minister Dr. Joe Phaahla, who since the commencement of our public service strike had been obsessed with implementing “no work no pay” instead of focusing on his primary task of providing quality public healthcare services to our people.
Lastly, we call on the DPSA and NDOH to pay our members and workers their salaries and strictly comply with the settlement agreement.
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat
Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968; December Mavuso (Deputy General Secretary) at 082 558 5969; Lwazi Nkolonzi (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 081 558 2335 or email: lwazin@nehawu.org.za