The capital city of Tshwane on Thursday axed an additional 55 employees, bringing the total number of workers fired over the illegal wage strike to 93.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said in a statement that “more dismissal letters are in the process of being issued to the striking employees”.
The Tshwane metro, which is run by a DA-led coalition, fired 38 employees on Monday last week, saying the unlawful and illegal strike had affected service restoration turnaround times.
The strike began with a march by SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) members on July 26 to municipal headquarters Tshwane House, demanding that the metro implement a 5.4% pay increase reached in the SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) in 2021. But the municipality has repeatedly said it does not have money and would apply to be exempted from implementing the wage deal.
“The strike action has now entered the third week, despite the labour court having granted the city an interim interdict against the strike and declaring it to be unlawful and unprotected on July 28,” said Bokaba.
“The court interdict has directed the striking employees to stop intimidating their co-workers and not to damage the city’s property and any public or private property.
“The city has now identified the individuals behind the strike and is finalising its court application, which is likely to be filed tomorrow [Friday],” he said.
“The striking employees, who are affiliated to labour trade union Samwu, were given three ultimatums by the city manager to return to work, but they disregarded his directives,” he said, adding that service delivery had been hampered in certain parts of the city due to continuous intimidation of employees by those who are participating in the strike.
On Thursday, the metro opened a case docket of arson at the Lyttleton Police Station against striking employees who damaged the waste bins and set them alight at the Waste Management Depot in Centurion, he said.
Samwu, the biggest local government union representing about 160,000 of the country’s nearly 300,000 municipal workers, is affiliated to labour federation Cosatu, a key ally of the governing ANC.
In a statement on Thursday, Cosatu Gauteng secretary Louisa Modikwe and provincial chair Amos Monyela said Tshwane metro’s behaviour violated SA’s labour legislation.
“Tshwane has reneged on two years’ collective agreements signed by the SA Local Government Association (Salga) and organised labour led by Samwu at SALGBC.
“This reckless behaviour has seen municipal employees denied their 2021 (3.5%) and 2023 (5.9%) increases that would have helped protect their already meagre wages from record high levels of inflation, enable [them] to take care of their families and pay their loans,” said Modikwe.
The Cosatu provincial leaders said if left unchecked, developments in Tshwane could threaten labour stability across the local government sector. They called on the commission for conciliation, mediation and arbitration, among other stakeholders, to try and resolve the matter.
“Municipal workers have the right to expect to be paid a living wage and to protect their paltry wages from being further decimated by inflation. The municipality too needs to realise that key to turning the city around is to build a healthy relationship with its employees,” said Monyela.
In July 2020, the Tshwane metro implemented a 6.25% pay rise that increased the city’s wage bill by R45m a month. The 6.25% increase was part of the last leg of a three-year wage hike agreement signed at the SALGBC in 2018.
In August 2020, the capital city bowed to pressure from unions including Samwu to implement a benchmarking agreement aimed at putting Tshwane municipal employees’ wages on par with those of other top municipalities.
It was said at the time that the decision was likely to put extra strain on metro finances already under pressure as residents, companies and government departments struggled to pay for services during the Covid-19 lockdown.
Samwu later opposed a vetting process to remove ghost employees from the payroll. The decision to withhold pay of more than 7,000 workers came two weeks after Tshwane agreed to implement the benchmarking agreement, which was set to cost the city R300m.
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