Cosatu will fight public service threat
Department warns of taking action
Trade union federation Cosatu has promised to protect essential services workers who joined its nationwide march against state capture and corruption from disciplinary action by their employers.
Thousands of workers took to the streets this week but the Public Service and Administration Department has told heads of government departments to discipline essential services workers who were part of the protest action.
However, Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said the department’s move was nonsense and out of order. “They are not going to win,” said Pamla.
On Tuesday, the day before the protests, Public Service and Administration directorgeneral Mashwahle Diphofa said essential services workers were not allowed to participate in the protest action during working hours.
“If they do participate, it will constitute an act of misconduct and they must be subjected to disciplinary measures,” reads Diphofa’s internal circular.
Pamla said Cosatu would ensure the threatened disciplinary action does not happen. “No law says all essential services workers cannot go on strike,” he said, adding that no service level agreement to regulate such decisions has been signed at the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council.
He said government departments tried this tactic during the 2007 and 2010 public servants’ strikes over wages, and accused Public Service and Administration Minister Faith Muthambi of showing signs of being reactionary because she is among the “beneficiaries of state capture and corruption.”
Leaked Gupta e-mails revealed that soon after her appointment as communications minister in 2014, Muthambi sent confidential information about executive policy and the scope of her powers to Tony Gupta, one of the Gupta brothers.
Diphofa also warned government departments that they risk incurring irregular expenditure if they do not apply the “no work, no pay” principle timeously. Muthambi’s spokesman Pfarelo Maduguma had not responded at the time of going to print.