Enoch Mgijima to ‘harmonise’ workers’ pay, ending strike

Enoch Mgijima municipal workers have returned to work after reaching an agreement with municipal bosses, ending a week-long strike that has left Komani drowning in rubbish.

The workers were demanding harmonisation of salaries of the three municipalities - Tsolwana, Inkwanca and Lukhanji that merged to form EM, meaning they want workers doing the same job to be paid the same. The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) previously said that addressing the pay disparities would cost an estimated R8m.

However, authorities and Samwu were tightlipped about the details of the agreement.

Over the weekend, the municipality hired a service provider to clean the town and parts of the townships.

Samwu Enoch Mgijima secretary Thabo Ngwane said: “As from Monday, all workers are back. On Friday we reached an agreement with the employer on all the demands we made.”

While he would not disclose the monetary value of the agreement, Ngwane said: “They agreed to pay some of the workers starting from the lowest at the end of this month and pay others in phases until the end of the financial year.”

The council met in a special meeting on Monday where a decision was taken to rubberstamp the agreement.

The item was considered in committee.

But after the meeting, EFF councillor Andisiwe Ngonyama said the mayoral committee had updated council on the outcomes of the meeting they had with workers on Friday.

About 250 workers qualified for the harmonisation.