{"id":342805,"date":"2019-09-25T07:59:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T05:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=342805"},"modified":"2019-09-26T12:00:05","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T10:00:05","slug":"last-minute-push-to-stop-south-africas-major-banking-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/342805\/last-minute-push-to-stop-south-africas-major-banking-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"Last minute push to stop South Africa’s major banking strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) will head to court today (25 September) in an effort to block a major banking strike on Friday, 27 September.<\/p>\n

The strike is being led by South Africa\u2019s largest financial union, Sasbo, with the mass action also being supported by trade federation Cosatu.<\/p>\n

According to Busa, Cosatu’s notice sent to the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) \u2013 under which Sasbo is planning to act \u2013 may not have satisfied the requirements for the action to be legally protected.<\/p>\n

The Nedlac notice was first issued in August 2017 and should not be relied on in 2019, it said.<\/p>\n

However, Sasbo has indicated that it is too late to stop the strike action now with over 40,000 members expected to partake in the mass action on the day.<\/p>\n

In an interview with BusinessTech<\/a><\/strong>, the union\u2019s general secretary Joe Kokela said that the union would not be deterred by the planned interdict.<\/p>\n

“In Zulu they have a word for this \u2013 \u2018Asijiki\u2019 \u2013 meaning there is no turning back now,” he said.<\/p>\n

Strike within the law<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Banking Association of South Africa (Basa) – a body which represents the country’s major banks – said that its members recogni<\/span>se the rights of bank workers to engage in protest action<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

“However, <\/span>these actions need to\u00a0<\/span>be\u00a0<\/span>undertaken in terms of the law, to ensure\u00a0<\/span>the safety\u00a0<\/span>of<\/span>\u00a0the public<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>businesses and<\/span>\u00a0their customers<\/span>, as well as\u00a0<\/span>the least possible disruption\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0<\/span>the economy,” it said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“In the event <\/span>of the protest action going ahead, we expect the authorities and unions to ensure it i<\/span>s peaceful and\u00a0<\/span>guarantee\u00a0<\/span>the safety of customers and property.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Basa said that the country’s banks are ‘painfully aware’ of the high rate of unemployment in the country. <\/span><\/p>\n

“They<\/span>\u00a0have\u00a0<\/span>been negotiating with staff and their representatives, in good faith,\u00a0<\/span>to minimise job losse<\/span>s,” it said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Where <\/span>necessary<\/span>\u00a0and possible<\/span>, they\u00a0<\/span>manag<\/span>e\u00a0<\/span>their staff numbers<\/span>\u00a0through<\/span>\u00a0natural attrition and\u00a0<\/span>by\u00a0<\/span>p<\/span>rovid<\/span>ing\u00a0<\/span>training and new opportunities\u00a0<\/span>to\u00a0<\/span>affected employees<\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

“R<\/span>etrenchment\u00a0<\/span>is\u00a0<\/span>a last resort.<\/span>\u00a0Basa members who<\/span>\u00a0are restructuring their businesses, have\u00a0<\/span>indicated that a few hun<\/span>dred employees are at risk of\u00a0<\/span>retrenchment<\/span>, despite the efforts of redeployment and re-skilling<\/span>. <\/span>There are no final figures <\/span>yet<\/span>, as\u00a0<\/span>negotiations a<\/span>re still underway.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Read: South Africa\u2019s banking strike \u2013 what you need to know according to the banks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Business Unity South Africa (Busa) will head to court in an effort to block a major banking strike on Friday (27 September).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-342805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342805"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":343139,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342805\/revisions\/343139"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}