SAPS affirmative action ruling compels SAPS to acknowledge Solidarity as recognised trade union

27 January 2016

Trade union Solidarity today called on the SAPS to acknowledge that Solidarity should be permitted to officially organise within the SAPS to protect the interests of its members. Solidarity also announced that in terms of the latest amendments to the Labour Relations Act (LRA), it would apply for official recognition in the near future.

“On National Police Day we call on the SAPS to acknowledge that Solidarity represents a significant number of members within the SAPS. Yesterday’s Labour Court ruling which declared the SAPS’s affirmative action plan invalid should be a wake-up call that Solidarity should be a recognised trade union in order to protect its members’ interest in receiving protection against unfair affirmative action measures.

Solidarity Deputy General Secretary Johan Kruger added that recent amendments to the LRA created the possibility for trade unions such as Solidarity to receive recognition. In the past, minority trade unions could be excluded from workplaces through collusion between majority trade unions and employers that set high admission thresholds.

According to Kruger, no other trade union within the SAPS is acting in the interest of Solidarity’s members and members of minority groups by looking after their interests and protecting them against the unfair implementation of affirmative action. Kruger said that in the past both SAPU and POPCRU had opposed Solidarity’s court actions regarding the unfair implementation of affirmative action in the Labour Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal and the Constitutional Court.

“POPCRU and SAPU, the majority trade unions in the SAPS, are not in the least acting in the interest of minority groups in the SAPS. On the contrary, these trade unions negotiated this unlawful plan and are litigating actively against a large section of those who are forced to pay a monthly agency fee to them,” Kruger said.

“Our application for recognition will no doubt be opposed. We will, however, deal with this matter as a test case to give substance to the latest legislative amendments,” Kruger said.

To support Solidarity’s recognition campaign, SMS “SAPD” to 34802.

Statement issued by Johan Kruger, Deputy General Secretary: Solidarity, 27 January 2016