Hundreds of disgruntled Buffalo City Metro (BCM) workers stormed into the City Hall yesterday and staged a sit-in demanding answers from mayor Alfred Mtsi concerning their grievances.
Workers affiliated to the SA Municipal Union (Samwu) said the action was a follow-up to a march last month at which they demanded BCM bosses grant them salary increases to match the city’s metro status.
They demanded a R2000 increase for all 5600 employees and that the increase be back-paid from 2011, which is when BCM’s status was upgraded to that of a metro.
Other demands were that:
lBCM absorb the expanded public works programme workers (EPWP) who have been working with the municipality for more than three years and;
lA “sewer allowance” policy be instigated to give relief to workers faced with appalling working conditions.
The protesters, who originally gave Mtsi until March 4 to respond, yesterday claimed they had not received one.
However, mayoral spokesman Sibusiso Cindi dismissed these claims, saying Mtsi wrote to Samwu on March 3 stating that the issues raised by the union in their petition fell outside his tasks and duties.
“The executive mayor then forwarded the petition to the office of the city manager and requested him to present the letter to the local labour forum (LLF) so that they could discuss the issues raised in the petition.”
Samwu had responded that they would embark on the industrial action because the LLF had not sat to discuss their petition. The mayor informed Samwu that the failure of the forum to sit rested with the members of the forum, Cindi said.
The Samwu members stormed past law enforcement officers who were sent to the premises to keep public control at the city hall.
The crowd of about 500 workers from the departments of finance, electricity, sanitation, and waste management chanted inside the city hall, while police surrounded the premises and kept up a presence inside.
Samwu leaders and metro bosses including Mtsi, deputy mayor Xola Pakati and council chief whip Mzwandile Vaaibom were locked in a meeting for hours and it was resolved that another meeting should take place on Monday.
Samwu regional secretary Zolani Ndlela said workers were frustrated because councillors were the first to to hike their salaries to suit their new metro status and these increases had not stopped.
Workers’ wages, however, had remained neglected since 2011.
“This issue has been going on for years now. We have been working as a metro since 2011, but our salaries do not match that. We just want to be equal to other metro workers in the country. We don’t want to fight with the council. We marched in 2012 about a matter we have been trying to resolve since 2011,” Ndlela said.
The workers vowed to stage another sit-in at the city hall on Monday in spite of BCM threatening to impose a “no-work no-pay” policy. Cindi said members who took part in the strike had no permit to strike and it was an unprotected strike.
“The mayor is not aware as to when the strike will come to an end, but he hopes that the workers can go back to work as the public is expecting, and is entitled to receive smooth service delivery” he said.
Samwu protesters storm the city hall
Workers affiliated to the SA Municipal Union (Samwu) said the action was a follow-up to a march last month at which they demanded BCM bosses grant them salary increases to match the city’s metro status.
They demanded a R2000 increase for all 5600 employees and that the increase be back-paid from 2011, which is when BCM’s status was upgraded to that of a metro.
Other demands were that:
lBCM absorb the expanded public works programme workers (EPWP) who have been working with the municipality for more than three years and;
lA “sewer allowance” policy be instigated to give relief to workers faced with appalling working conditions.
The protesters, who originally gave Mtsi until March 4 to respond, yesterday claimed they had not received one.
However, mayoral spokesman Sibusiso Cindi dismissed these claims, saying Mtsi wrote to Samwu on March 3 stating that the issues raised by the union in their petition fell outside his tasks and duties.
“The executive mayor then forwarded the petition to the office of the city manager and requested him to present the letter to the local labour forum (LLF) so that they could discuss the issues raised in the petition.”
Samwu had responded that they would embark on the industrial action because the LLF had not sat to discuss their petition. The mayor informed Samwu that the failure of the forum to sit rested with the members of the forum, Cindi said.
The Samwu members stormed past law enforcement officers who were sent to the premises to keep public control at the city hall.
The crowd of about 500 workers from the departments of finance, electricity, sanitation, and waste management chanted inside the city hall, while police surrounded the premises and kept up a presence inside.
Samwu leaders and metro bosses including Mtsi, deputy mayor Xola Pakati and council chief whip Mzwandile Vaaibom were locked in a meeting for hours and it was resolved that another meeting should take place on Monday.
Samwu regional secretary Zolani Ndlela said workers were frustrated because councillors were the first to to hike their salaries to suit their new metro status and these increases had not stopped.
Workers’ wages, however, had remained neglected since 2011.
“This issue has been going on for years now. We have been working as a metro since 2011, but our salaries do not match that. We just want to be equal to other metro workers in the country. We don’t want to fight with the council. We marched in 2012 about a matter we have been trying to resolve since 2011,” Ndlela said.
The workers vowed to stage another sit-in at the city hall on Monday in spite of BCM threatening to impose a “no-work no-pay” policy. Cindi said members who took part in the strike had no permit to strike and it was an unprotected strike.
“The mayor is not aware as to when the strike will come to an end, but he hopes that the workers can go back to work as the public is expecting, and is entitled to receive smooth service delivery” he said.
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