Go-slow set to be settled in court
PARTIES involved in the dispute that has led to a go-slow by the South African Democratic Teachers Union seem to have agreed to let the courts settle the matter later this year.
PARTIES involved in the dispute that has led to a go-slow by the South African Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu) seem to have agreed to let the courts settle the matter later this year.
The union, however, yesterday vowed the industrial action would continue until Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga quit. It said on Monday that members would not work beyond the seven formal working hours as inland schools reopened yesterday.
Sadtu’s action follows the department’s decision to withdraw unilaterally from a collective bargaining agreement setting out tariffs for teachers for the setting of and marking of matric exams.
Sadtu’s action comes despite the union last month winning an application in the Labour Court to have the collective agreement reinstated pending a full court hearing in August.
Ms Motshekga yesterday said the decision to withdraw from the deal came after negotiations stalled. As a result, she said, a “new process” had to begin.
She said the issue “should now be resolved in the courts”. Discussions with provincial education MECs about the go-slow would take place at the weekend.
The department maintains it made an error when it published details of the agreement. It maintains the discrepancy between figures agreed with unions, and the figures published in the Govern- ment Gazette, would have resulted in unbudgeted provincial expenditure of R700m.
This made proceeding with the “erroneous agreement” unworkable, while Sadtu rejected offers to find a resolution.
Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke denied the union was intransigent, saying negotiators had worked on the deal for a year and that the published figures “couldn’t be a mistake”.
He said “no union worth its salt would agree to withdraw a collective agreement” after “eight years of no increases”.
Mr Maluleke said Sadtu’s goslow was motivated by the poor leadership shown by Ms Motshekga in the decision to withdraw from the deal, and her move to “shield” department directorgeneral Bobby Soobrayan over the Limpopo textbook crisis.
Ms Motshekga said her “hands were tied” on the 2012 textbook crisis. She could not take action against those responsible, as the Presidency had directed her to await the findings of a Public Service Commission probe.
National Professional Teachers Organisation of SA (Naptosa) president Basil Manuel said the body was looking to the Labour Court to settle the issue.
He said the issue should have been resolved in bargaining structures. Naptosa was concerned at the move’s implications for collective bargaining.
Democratic Alliance education spokeswoman Annette Lovemore accused Sadtu of going on strike as “refusing to work more than seven hours a day is tantamount to declaring the withholding of labour”. Mr Maluleke said the union was abiding by the “work to rule” provision.
The Public Service Commission said that the probe into the textbook saga was ongoing, and “given the magnitude” of the inquiry no time frame could be given for completion.