SAMWU welcomes SALGBC ruling dismissing City of Tshwane’s frivolous exemption application, calls for the City to immediately pay workers’ salary increases.
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) notes and welcomes the decision by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) to dismiss the frivolous exemption application by the City of Tshwane to be exempted from paying workers their salary 5.4% salary increases effective from 1 July 2023.
In 2021, parties in the SALGBC concluded a three-year salary and wage collective agreement which would have seen municipal workers in the country’s 257 municipalities receive a 3.5%, 4.9% and 5.4% salary and wage increases in 2021, 2022 and 2023 respectively. Instead of implementing the first leg of the agreement in 2021, the City of Tshwane applied to be exempted from the agreement and had their application dismissed.
This year, municipal workers were supposed to receive a 5.4% salary and wage increase effective from 1 July. Instead of implementing the agreement, the City played delaying tactics and finally applied to be exempted from the collective agreement in August, a month after the increases were supposed to be implemented.
During the exemption hearing which was heard before a Senior Commissioner under the auspices of the SALGBC in early September, the City failed to prove that it does not have the resources needed to fund the salary increases. It has always been SAMWU’s contention that the City does have the money for these increases, but has taken a political decision to deliberately deny workers their salaries for a second time in three years.