Rhodes University has warned the National Education‚ Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) that the university would take disciplinary action against its protesting members if they did not immediately return to work.
On Wednesday, Rhodes said it received no notice of the day’s protest or the ongoing go-slow and that it regarded it as unlawful and unprocedural.
About 300 Nehawu members gathered on the rubbish-strewn steps of the university administration building on Wednesday morning in a vocal protest against the university’s revised 6.5% salary increase offer.
While the National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has formally accepted Rhodes’s revised offer‚ Nehawu rejected it outright.
Among many other demands‚ Nehawu wants an across-the-board 7.5% increase along with increases in housing and danger allowances‚ 100% bursaries at the university for family members and for the university’s name to be changed.
On Wednesday, NTEU’s Grant Abbott confirmed that the union had accepted the revised offer.
Nehawu spokesperson Zakade Vena said he would only comment after a lunchtime meeting with management.
Rhodes said it was doing all it could to alleviate the effect of the go-slow‚ particularly in university residences and dining halls.
Students had received vouchers to buy food.
TMG Digital/DispatchLIVE
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