DUT principal reveals “truth” behind wage negotiations

MOMENTS before the Deputy Minister of Higher Education, Buti Manamela met with the three striking unions and Durban of University of Technology’s (DUT) management at the embattled institution, DUT’s Vice-Chancellor, Thandwa Mthembu issued a response to the alleged inaccurate comments made by the three labour unions at the school. According to Mthembu, negotiations with the Unions regarding the 2018 salary increment commenced last year.

“Despite the open and honest discussions with labour, the three unions went to the CCMA to file for a strike certificate in December last year. The unions refused to continue their discussions with the University and commenced a staff strike on Monday 15 January 2018. It is ironic that when we suggested at the end of January 2018 to get the CCMA involved to mediate, the same unions that had hurriedly gone to the CCMA to get a strike certificate, were unwilling to participate. We had to force the mediation process by approaching the CCMA,” said Mthembu.

Among the many “truths” Mthembu revealed was that, despite the three unions statement about his refusal to meet with them, it was he who written to the unions requesting to meet.

He said he requested a meeting with the chairpersons of the unions so that they could discuss the common understanding that had been reached the night before and work towards suspending the strike.

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“The three union leaders rejected my offer to meet and instead, placed a new demand on my table regarding totally cancelling the no-work-no-pay principle. The university has all along remained open to negotiations and I can confirm that the management team were not the ones who walked away from the negotiation table,” he said.

Mthembu said the 6.5% increase in basic pay and the 6.5% increase in the housing allowance will place the University into a R12 million financial deficit for 2018.

“The truth is, our University has revised its offer on eight separate occasions. The University made it clear from the start that we will not accept any demand for a 14th Cheque, once-off bonus (which is not even related to any performance criteria), as part of the salary demands made by the unions. The increase will place us into a R12 million deficit. However, the management team will adopt strategies and implement actions that will save funds over the course of the financial year, so that at the end of December 2018, we would have reduced the deficit. Any further deficit would be difficult to wipe out by the end of the financial year,” said Mthembu.

“Given DUT’s run down facilities we have a maintenance plan with a bill of R1.2 billion (as of 2014), which would have escalated by now. As far as our council is concerned, all the available resources must be invested in maintenance, general capex and infrastructure, so we could not just promise to be a university of technology, but look like one,” concluded Mthembu.

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