SETTLEMENT agreement brought an end to the unprotected strike by SAMWU and its members.
Under the auspices of the CCMA, SAMWU, Pikitup and the City of Johannesburg, agreement was reached on Saturday, April 9, to end the unprotected strike, which commenced on March 9.
Employees will return to work immediately and there will be an end to all acts of intimidation and violence, victimisation and harassment.
Pikitup will make a once-off payment of R750 to all Grade A and B workers and this will be taken into account in the further negotiations which will commence on April 11 and conclude on April 13 this year, under the auspices of the CCMA.
In the event that agreement cannot be reached the parties will consider referring the dispute to mutual-interest arbitration or, alternatively, the parties will advise each other of the steps they will pursue in exercising their rights, taking into consideration the extent of the agreement.
The no-work-no-pay rule will apply, with 50 per cent of the deduction being deferred and the remaining two tranches of 25 per cent deducted in May and June. The immediate return to work will be taken into account in mitigation of the sanctions in the disciplinary hearings.
The negotiations on salary benchmarking will be based on the principle of a salary scale, a common grading system and salary progression based on tenure and job performance.
It was further agreed that the parties will embark on a relationship-building exercise to restore relationships.
Finally it has been agreed to allow the parallel and ongoing deployment of contracted resources to ensure that the backlog of uncollected waste (domestic, illegally dumped, putrefied or otherwise) is recovered. The City has set up a Joint Operations Centre to ensure that the backlog of uncollected waste is cleared by April 30, which SAMWU will support.
