Parliamentary strike to continue today
As a strike by parliamentary staff entered its fifth day on Thursday the legislature’s secretary Gengenzi Mgidlana announced a raft of options had been put on the table for workers to consider.
“Management presented a number of options…to enable us to move forward,” Mgidlana said, but declined to elaborate.
Workers are demanding better salaries and pension benefits, plus an end to outsourcing of services and the process of reviewing security clearance of all who work at Parliament.
They also want their performance bonuses calculated according to their total cost to company and not to be based on their monthly salaries.
Mgidlana said this was not a demand Parliament could afford to meet.
“It would cost upwards of R50 million. We don’t have R50 million. We have not budgeted for R50 million,” he said.
While parliamentary sittings continued on Thursday, the workers ignored a labour court interdict obtained by the legislature declaring the stoppage illegal, and preventing workers from picketing on the premises.
They sang and danced, insisting they would not resume work until all their demands were met.
The branch chairman of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union Sthembiso Tembe said it had no intention of heeding the interdict because it was obtained in bad faith.
“We learnt about it in the media and we are not concerned about it. We are not going to respect it because anyway it was obtained in bad faith,” he said.
Parliamentary management and union representatives would return to the negotiating table on Friday to try to resolve the matter.