CWU MEDIA STATEMENT RELEASED IN THE OCASSION OF THE MEDIA BRIEFING
29 OCTOBER 2014
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), the leading and largest trade union in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry has convened this important media briefing to clarify and inform the South African public about the developments in the South African Post Office (SAPO) as well as the restructuring process within Telkom and our position in relation to these matters. We will further brief the media on our planned march to parliament on Friday the 31st October 2014.
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POST OFFICE
As you are all aware, the S.A Post Office has been crippled by a rolling industrial action by its employees for three months now. Our members including members of some insignificant minority unions have been on a spontaneous unprotected strike to demand a 15% salary increment and the conversion of casual workers into permanent employees. This nation-wide action brought to a halt service delivery at many postal outlets in the country. Through this action, workers have demonstrated their determination to engage in whatever form of militant action in pursuit of what they are rightfully entitled to.
Following countless engagements with the management of the S.A Post Office and the Minister of Telecommunication and Postal Services, Honourable Siyabonga Cwele, the leadership of CWU has travelled the length and breadth of the country to meet and consult with workers on the offer from the management of the S.A Post Office and on what should constitute a simple compromise in the shortest time possible.
We have therefore tabled what we view as our final counter-proposal and call on the management of S.A Post Office to respond positively and with the necessary speed if indeed they are serious about resolving the current labour unrest and achieve a lasting cessation of hostilities which have so far had dire consequences.
In a nutshell, this is our proposed agreement in relation to the salary increment:
7,5% increase backdated to 1 April 2014
A further 0,5% increase from January 2015
8% increase plus CPI by April 2015 (next financial year)
On the conversion of all employees into permanent positions, we demand that this entire process should be concluded within a period of 1 year and four months and should be effected progressively as follows:
First month - convert 958 workers
Second month - convert 772 workers
Thereafter convert up to the final month the last 332 workers
We further demand that the principle of first employed to be converted be applied.
On the matter of the dismissed 588 employees in the Wits region who were later re-employed, we demand that all of them be re-instated to their original posts and original salary scales.
As CWU, we believe an immediate resolution of this stand-off and impasse between workers and the management along the fair and reasonable demands and proposals we have put forward will be in the best interest of the South African public. The turmoil in the Post Office has continued for a longer period than anticipated and it is our people who have suffered a lot in the process.
Critical mail has not been delivered; students have not received their learning material; small businesses (SMMEs) who use the Post Office have suffered and patients have not received their life-saving chronic medication. All of these have happened as a result of the gross mismanagement of SAPO and the incompetence of Board members.
Given the dire financial crisis brought about by sheer incompetence, mismanagement and wasteful expenditure by those at the helm of the SAPO, we call upon government to provide financial assistance where it is most needed as part of its responsibility to the South African public.
1. Government must provide immediate financial assistance to the SAPO to rescue it from total collapse
2. Government must ensure that SAPO gets 50% of all products and services that SAPO is capable of providing to all government department and levels
This will go a long way in ensuring that no interruption of service occurs. It will further ensure that SAPO continue to provide critical employment to the marginalized sections of our people. The Post Office is there to provide services to the poor and government and SAPO management has an obligation and for this we shall continue to keep them accountable.
On Telkom
We met with Telkom after we declared a dispute with the company on the 14th October 2014, matters that are dispute are the following:
Gain Sharing
Gain sharing for the year 2013-2014 which the company has failed to pay correctly in terms of our agreement with the company, this matter could not be resolved as the company is still insisting that they honoured the agreement. The matter is being referred to CCMA by CWU for interpretation.
Section 189 and Employment Equity
We raised a number of discrepancies in terms of how the process unfolded, in general what has transpired the company has allowed Management to do as they please when selecting those that they either favoured where most of the positions were retained for whites while Blacks were not placed or were placed in less significant positions.
With this process the percentage of whites in management increased while that of Blacks decreased, some of the positions were promotional and this also favoured whites against other raises in the company and also against the company's EE policy and Plan.
The other issue that is in dispute is around the forceful retrenchment of 104 workers who were issued with termination letters even though the company had over achieved their target of 223, however 302 workers in the affected areas opted for VSPs/VERPS which the company approved by the company, hence we do not agree with the company proceeding to forcefully retrench another 104 workers. We have engaged the company in our dispute meeting on how to resolve this matter including the withdrawal of the termination letters unfortunately without any success, we have also asked the company to audit the process and unfortunately they have refused.
It has become very clear for us that the CEO Sipho Maseko and his COO Brian Armstrong are not willing to engage with CWU as they even released a statement emphasizing that the retrenchment letters will not be withdrawn while the parties were still engaging.
Telkom has declared a war on CWU, they are not willing to engage with us and are hell bent on marginalizing us, Sipho and his team have succumbed to the threats of minority unions in the company hence this process has favoured privileged white workers. Therefore we are left with no option but to mobilize our members to fight to the bitter end.
We further call for the government to buy back TELKOM and VODACOM as we view them as strategic entities for the developmental objectives of our country.
Statement issued by Aubrey Tshabalala, Communication Workers Union General Secretary, October 29 2014
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