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South African Post Office and Telkom employees have embarked on an indefinite strike, citing “engagement in bad faith” by management in an ongoing wage negotiation as their motivating factor.
In what may seem like a case of déjà vu for those closely following the ongoing wage negotiations at yet another state-owned entity, Eskom, the postal services workers were first offered a “zero percent wage increase”, which unions rejected. The offer was later improved to 6%.
The Communication Workers Union, the South African Postal Workers Union (Sapwu), the Democratic Postal and communications Union and the Southern African Customs Union, after partaking in lunch time pickets for the past week, resolved to joined forces on Friday and took part in a national shutdown of the South African Post Office and Telkom.
In Johannesburg workers and unions gathered at the Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown demanding a 12% salary hike.
Sapwu general secretary, David Mangena, said management had not offered workers a wage increase since 2017.
“As unions, we have tried to engage them with no success. We ended up taking the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration for refusal to bargain and on June 21 we were awarded a certificate of favour of employee.
“On Tuesday the company [SA Post Office] then tabled an offer of 6% up from their zero percent offer.”
SA Post Office spokesperson Johan Kruger disputed the union’s version of events and said the postal service had experienced sporadic incidents of picketing and work stoppages at its outlets and offices for the past few days, mainly at large centres.
Kruger said the stoppages had affected South Africa Social Security Agency beneficiaries who wanted to use the Post Office to withdraw their grants.
When withdrawing from the Post Office beneficiaries do not incur any bank charges, while withdrawals at ATMs or supermarkets come with three free cash withdrawals a month.
Mangena argued that there were already technical glitches with regards to making payments to beneficiaries even before the looming protest action by workers.
“I have heard comments being made by the SA Post Office chief executive [Mark Barnes] that seem to suggest that workers embarking on the protest action is directly linked to the delays in payments and I would like to say that this is untrue. Some of these beneficiaries are our mother, our fathers and we are mindful to not seriously inconvenience our communities even as we hold firm in our demands.”
The unions were scheduled to meet later on Friday or over the weekend to discuss the 6% offer tabled by management so as “to return to the employer with a united response”.
The Post Office offered an across-the-board salary increase of 6% on basic salary from August 1 to all employees following negotiations with its trade unions facilitated by the CCMA.
The CCMA facilitator has also allowed time for trade union representatives to consult with their members and the parties would reconvene at the CCMA on Monday for a continuation of the discussions.
Mangena said there were many other concerns that needed to be addressed, not just the wage dispute.
“There are workers in the company who have been working under the title of permanent part-time works for years and yet the Post Office say it does not have the capacity to employ them on a fulltime basis,” said Mangena.
These workers apparently lose out of benefits such as housing benefits – “if permanent workers get R1000 for housing, the permanent part-time works are paid half of that amount”.
Post Office management asked the trade unions to “suspend the industrial action until the parties meet again on Monday to finalise the negotiations and reach agreement, because of the impact this will have on the pension payout process”.
The unions said they were left with no other choice but to embark on industrial action and warned the company that this was “only phase one”.
Should the company continue to “engage in bad faith”, “protest action will be escalated”.
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