Union reaches deal to stem tide of retrenchments
THE National Health Education and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) claims that it has reached a deal with government regarding the mooted retrenching of public servants, saying the process was against the tide.
The union says its stand would always be clear – that it doesn’t want any worker to be retrenched in the public sector, mainly because that could condemn the retrenched workers to poverty and misery.
The union also said the retrenched workers would add a burden to the social security net of the country as they would later come back with a begging bowl to get grants.
Reports suggested the government was planning to retrench 30 000 of its 2.1 million workers across the country.
The move was announced by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni in his Budget speech in February this year.
He said it would save the government R8 billion by 2022.
Speaking to Independent Media yesterday, Zola Saphetha, the union’s secretary, said the contentious issue of cutting down on the number of public servants came up at their national policy conference which was held in Gauteng and concluded on Saturday.
He said that as a result of the issue coming up, they invited the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Senzo Mchunu, to address them and he assured them there would not be cuts.
“We’re opposed to retrenchments and early retirement for government workers. What we’re saying as Nehawu is that government must fill all the vacant posts within it instead of cutting down the size of the public service. That’s why when the minister attended our conference we spoke about the matter, and we’re happy he told us this isn’t one of the issues he has to urgently deal with,” Saphetha said.
So important was the issue of the public service at the conference that there was a commission that looked at the topic: “Transformed public sector, the outlook of a transformed public sector and the role of the union in creating such outlook – public sector as a terrain of struggle and also our workplace”.
Saphetha said that at the conference they agreed with Mchunu that there should be a task team made up of government representatives and unions to look at the matter before it was implemented.
“Our message to the workers is clear: don’t take those early retirements. We welcome the fact that there’ll be a task team to look at the matter,” he said.
He added that their opposition to the government move to cut costs by trimming the public services was informed by the fact that the economy was in bad shape and a worker who took an early retirement would be worse off financially.
“Even the president says we must create jobs because we have many unemployed people and that means we can’t then retrench workers during these tough economic times. Anyone who tries to retrench workers will face the wrath of Nehawu,” he said.