The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) has reached an agreement with the University of South Africa (UNISA) to bring the 8-day strike to an end.
The wage increase agreement is on a sliding scale from 6.5% to 8.5% for the lowest paid workers. The agreement also includes a massive increase on salaries for security personnel and cleaners with a salary increase of 20% and 18% respectively.
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According to the union, another victory registered was on retaining performance bonuses of R112 million to be paid to all qualifying workers in line with the Integrated Perfomance Management System (IPMS) to be implemented in February. Workers will also share performance bonuses backdated to 1st January 2018.
“Both parties also agreed on a process to absorb ICT workers who have been on contract for 15 years by no later than 31 March 2018 as per the LRA amendments.The national union will formally write to the Minister of Higher Education and Training on the ministerial deployees on council who have been cited in the state of capture report and Gupta leaks to be formally suspended until their names are cleared.The union would like to register its appreciation to all its members who, despite court interdicts, continued to refuse to go to work as they were well aware their struggle for economic emancipation can only be led by themselves,” said the Union’s Zola Saphetha.
Unisa says the process has been conducted, taking into account the financial situation of the university and the realities experienced by the sector.
“The situation has been compounded by various factors affecting the fiscus as well as uncertainty linked to policy changes within the sector. The latest fee free higher education is yet to be clearer in terms of this impact later this year. Against this backdrop it is clear that the negotiations remained challenging. Consequently, Unisa continues to seek an optimal balance amongst these demanding challenges to ensure institutional agility and efficacy. In terms of the collective agreement signed by the parties, permanent and fixed-term employees will receive a differentiated salary increase of 7.5% and a special dispensation for the insourced employees,” Unisa said.
Meanwhile, the staff at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) have vowed to continue with the strike until their demand is met.
The three unions National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU), the Tertiary Education National Union of SA(TENUSA) and NEHAWU have been on strike since early January.
The unions are demanding a 10% pay increase, with DUT offering 6%. Last week, during a press briefing, the institution said it is unlikely to change its salary offer to labour unions as it was already spending a large chunk of its budget on salaries.
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