{"id":427942,"date":"2020-08-24T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2020-08-24T05:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=427942"},"modified":"2020-08-24T07:52:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T05:52:42","slug":"major-strike-action-planned-for-south-africa-starting-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/427942\/major-strike-action-planned-for-south-africa-starting-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Major strike action planned for South Africa starting this week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Education, Health and Allied Workers\u2019 Union (Nehawu) will begin strike action this week despite meeting with government officials over the weekend to discuss key issues.<\/p>\n<p>The union plans to strike against the government\u2019s refusal to increase public servants\u2019 salaries and a failure to offer adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) against the coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>Nehawu\u2019s membership base exceeds 240,000 people, making it the largest public-sector union in the country.<\/p>\n<p>In a notice sent to members, Nehawu said that its activities will begin with the &#8220;Tsaya le tsatsi la leave&#8221; action. This will see see workers flock to their employer&#8217;s offices on Monday (24 August) to apply for a leave day for Tuesday (25 August).<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The &#8216;Tsaya le tsatsi la leave&#8217; will be followed by lunch hour pickets which will take place in all workplaces from the 24th until the 27th August 2020 and on the 28th August 2020 will be \u201cSiyahlala Day of Action\u201d whereby all workers across all sectors we organise shall be observing lockdown as they are no longer feeling safe at their workplaces by staying at home and not going to work.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This will be followed by a work to rule campaign by all members across all sectors on the 31st August 2020,&#8221; it said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">NEHAWU mass action is continuing. The national union will continue to send a clear message that it won\u2019t fold its arms while workers get infected on a daily basis with COVID-19 and losing their lives. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Uj8vPLgQIN\">pic.twitter.com\/Uj8vPLgQIN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NEHAWU (@NEHAWU) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NEHAWU\/status\/1297605372346277890?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 23, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The union has committed to a &#8216;day of mass action&#8217; on <strong>3 September<\/strong>, where memorandums will be handed over to senior government officials.<\/p>\n<p>Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla has previously said that union has\u00a0the federation\u2019s blessings and support for its planned mass action next month. \u201cWe want public servants to go on a full-blown strike,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Pamla stated that the government is not acting as though there is a crisis in the country with public servants contracting and succumbing to the deadly coronavirus.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that if the government does not meet Nehawu\u2019s demands by\u00a0<strong>10 September<\/strong>, the union will completely withdraw its labour.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Meeting with government\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Department of Health has met with Nehawu and other unions on Saturday (22 August) to discuss issues relating to health care workers, infrastructure and remuneration.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement released by the department, government said that there were nine key issues identified during the meeting which required urgent attention and swift implementation of corrective measures.<\/p>\n<p>These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The relationship between the Department of Health and unions;<\/li>\n<li>The appointment and functionality of Occupational Health and Safety Committees;<\/li>\n<li>Psychosocial support;<\/li>\n<li>Monitoring of PPE;<\/li>\n<li>Human resources for health;<\/li>\n<li>Health infrastructure;<\/li>\n<li>Transport and catering;<\/li>\n<li>Danger\/ risk allowance (and other remuneration issues);<\/li>\n<li>Demonstration of inclusivity in decision making.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;We do want a new culture- a culture of openness and determination to resolve issues for the dignity and respect of health care workers, securing their health and well being, said Health minister Zweli Mkhize.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have all been in the trenches trying to resolve problems. There may have been misunderstanding and tensions but ultimately we all want to protect our workers and therefore we all need to find mechanisms to do so.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/427902\/ramaphosa-has-written-a-letter-to-anc-members-about-corruption-here-is-what-it-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ramaphosa has written a letter to ANC members about corruption: here is what it says<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Education, Health and Allied Workers\u2019 Union (Nehawu) will begin strike action this week despite meeting with government officials over the weekend to discuss key issues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-427942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427942","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=427942"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427980,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427942\/revisions\/427980"}],"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=427942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}