NEHAWU Strike At NSFAS to Commence Tomorrow Morning
Sunday October 4, 2020
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] will be embarking on a strike action at the National Students Financial Aid Scheme [NSFAS] as from tomorrow morning [Monday October 5, 2020] after serving the employer with a notice to strike on the 25th September 2020.
Salary negotiations between both parties started on the 12th June 2020 before they deadlocked on the 10th September 2020 at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration [CCMA]. A certificate to strike was received by NEHAWU on the 21st September 2020 which was subsequently followed by a balloting process in line with the Labour Relations Act [LRA]. All our members voted unanimously for the strike action to take place. In this regard, NEHAWU members will embark on an industrial action and the strike action will continue indefinitely until our demands are successfully met by the employer.
Workers are demanding an 8% salary increase while the employer is only prepared to offer a 0% salary increase. Moreover, the strike will be used to highlight workers anger over the following issues:
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Lack of an integrated performance management system
- An automated IT system for disbursement of funds to students
- Appointment of a CEO and a board
- The illegal extension of the Administrator
- Adoption of the Government Employees Pension Fund [GEPF] and other alternative pension fund services providers as the current one is ineffective
- Implementation of progressive human resources policies for workers development
- Defunct human resources systems and outdated policies
- Unfair suspensions and victimization of workers based on union affiliation
Since our strike action last year August our members have been patient with the employer with the hope that things will turn for the better but instead of improvements their situation is turning dire by the day. High levels of financial mismanagement, unfair suspension and purging of senior staff members continue to be the order of the day. An influx of appointments continue to be made without a recruitment and selection policy coupled with the absence of an organogram.
As things stand, NSFAS has not finalized the funding of students for 2017/18 and they are now blocked from registering or obtaining their qualifications. Furthermore, NSFAS has withdrawn funding of 5000 students that it claims do not qualify partly because of the absence of systems which was part of the mandate of the Administrator. It is for these reasons that we will intensify our call for the removal of the Administrator which must immediately be followed by the appointment of a CEO and a board.
The General Secretary of NEHAWU, Cde Zola Saphetha, will address the picketing workers and the media as follows:
Date: Tuesday October 6, 2020
Time: 11am
Venue: House Vincent 2nd Floor, 10 Brodie Rd, Wynberg, Cape Town
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat and DHET
Zola Saphetha (General Secretary) at 082 558 5968;
December Mavuso (Deputy General Secretary) at 082 558 5969;
Khaya Xaba (NEHAWU National Spokesperson) at 082 455 2500 - email khaya@nehawu.org.za