Cosatu rejects ‘confusing’ wage strike with Covid-19
Key ANC ally Cosatu says it intends to openly defy President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ban on mass gatherings of more than 100 people and will support a planned national strike by its public sector affiliate over cuts to the public sector wage bill.
Cosatu general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali, who attended a special executive council meeting of the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac), on Monday, said the federation will support the union for state and public entity workers should it down tools and take to the streets on March 30.
“Whatever action [the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union, Nehawu] takes, we will support them,” Ntshalintshali said.
Nehawu will have to “debate” the fact that going on a strike could potentially lead to more people being infected by the rapidly spreading virus that has been confirmed in more than 60 people in SA, Ntshalintshali said.
“They will look at all the risks but I think the message that they are sending is: they will not leave their rights just because government wants to confuse this thing with the Covid-19 [outbreak].”
Ntshalintshali said Nehawu, which is Cosatu’s largest affiliate, will need to plan the strike properly because “no person in their right mind” would want to fight for wages and in the process contract diseases. “They will have to plan that properly, but whatever decision the public sector [union] takes, we will support them,” he said.
On Sunday, Nehawu said it is “crystal clear” that the government has no intention of honouring the last leg of the threeyear wage agreement signed at the public sector co-ordinating bargaining council in 2018.
The government announced in its budget review in February that it plans to cut the public sector wage bill by more than R160bn over the next three years. Renegotiating the third year of the wage agreement is projected to cut R37.8bn, or 1.5% in real terms, in 2020.
Under the existing agreement, workers will receive an increase of consumer price inflation (CPI) plus 1%, and notch increments of about 1%.
Nehawu general secretary Zola Saphetha said the union wants to send a clear message that “there will be no negotiations on the current agreement as it exists”.
The union has directed all its national, provincial and regional structures to prepare for “a process of proper consultations with all our members and to start mobilising for a national day of action to take place on March 30 2020”.
“After the national day of action, if the government continues with reneging on the current agreement we will be left no option but to embark on rolling mass action,” said Saphetha.
On Sunday, Ramaphosa announced sweeping measures to contain the spread of the Covid-19 disease, including travel restrictions on foreigners from hard-hit countries, a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people and the closure of schools.
In a media briefing following the Nedlac meeting on Monday, Ntshalintshali said the meeting discussed measures aimed at “saving lives and the economy”.
He called for social partners to join hands to fight the spread of Covid-19 through mass communication.
The Nedlac meeting resolved that workplaces should encourage their employees to work from home, and that there should be no discrimination against those who might have been infected by the coronavirus. It also resolved that workers should not lose their income if affected by the virus.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which was planning to embark on a march to ANC headquarters Luthuli House on Friday, has called off the event, describing the move as a precautionary measure to try to prevent Covid19 from spreading.
The NUM march was billed as a demonstration against the unbundling of Eskom into three units responsible for generation, transmission and distribution; the independent power producers; and against retrenchments in the mining, energy and construction sectors.
“There shall be no mass meetings or shaft/shop steward council meetings until the ban on meetings has been lifted by the state president ... It is against this background that the planned march to the ANC headquarters [at] Luthuli House has been postponed until further notice,” NUM president Joseph Montisetse said on Monday.