MBOMBELA – “If I die now my children get nothing.” These were the words of an employee of the University of Mpumalanga (UMP), to the management team on Wednesday.
Management met with about 150 affected staff members who were formerly employees of the Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs’ (Dardlea) Lowveld Agriculture College (LAC). They were transferred from the employ of Dardlea at the end of December.
As government employees they had been members of the Government Pension Fund (GPF). After being informed by the GPF that they no longer have pension funds since being employed by the university, they barricaded themselves inside the university’s premises and parked three tractors in front of the entrances to prevent cars from entering or leaving.
The man who spoke on their behalf said he had worked for the LAC for 35 years.
Prof Thoko Mayekiso, the vice-chancellor of the university, told the angry staff members, who included lecturers, administration clerks and cleaners, that they had also been shocked to discover in December that the transferred employees could no longer be members of either GPF or Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS).
While the university falls under the Department of Higher Education and Training and is therefore a government institution, UMP is not a participating member of either scheme. But, since no Section 197 agreement in terms of the Labour Relations Act had been signed between Dardlea and UMP to date, they could not transfer their pensions to another fund. They have also lost their benefits, such as life cover.
Following a meeting with Dardlea last week, UMP management said on Wednesday that they now wanted to set up a task team in each entity to assist them in the transfers.
They had to assure employees that their jobs were secure and they would continue in their positions without having to reapply for them, once the transfers had been completed.
At the time of going to press Dardlea had not commented on the reasons for the failure of the two parties to sign the transfer agreement months ago.
See the video of the events here:
