POLOKWANE – Post Office clients can heave a sigh of relief, since the striking post office workers from the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) have decided to return to work this week.

“Things should be back to normal as from Wednesday, as we intend to return to work from Monday,” one of the protesting workers told Review on Friday after a union meeting in Nirvana.

This was confirmed yesterday (Monday) by the CWU’s provincial deputy secretary, Sipho Maholwana.

He said the union told workers to go back to work this week. Workers had expressed their willingness to work overtime and on Sundays to erase the backlog of registration of mail, as well as sorting and delivery of mail, which heaped up over the two month-long period that employees were on strike in Limpopo. In other provinces the strike started earlier.

Maholwana said the employees demanded a wage increase of at least 8% and he would continue with negotiations for a further 1,5% increase early in 2015 and an 8% increase next year.

The South African Post Office (SAPO) offered workers a wage increase of 6,5%, backdated as from April 1.

“We did return to work on Monday last week, but we were chased away from our workplaces by managers,” one worker told Review on Friday.

Maholwana, and CWU Polokwane chairperson, Amos Mofokeng, said there were still some serious threats to their members that raised safety concerns, as members of rival unions had threatened CWU workers who wished to return to work.

They confirmed that managers at post offices refused their employees entry to their work places last week.

Moholwana said there were rumours of workers about to receive dismissal letters and that their positions would be advertised.

“This is a very serious consideration by management. We deem this step bargaining in bad faith.”

Postal strike continues in the city