Jobs on the line as Tshwane mayor issues ultimatum to striking employees

The Tshwane mayor has issued an ultimatum and is preparing to apply for a contempt of court application for the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) strike, which has been tagged “unlawful”.

Randall Williams said the issued ultimatum was an order for the unlawfully striking employees to return to work.

This follows Samwu battling with the Tshwane metro for almost three years over a benchmarking agreement reached between the two parties at the bargaining council to adjust workers’ salaries in line with a category 10 status acquired by the municipality in 2017.

Municipal workers in Tshwane have halted work, following the stand-off.

Williams said should his ultimatum call not be heeded, the metro would further issue a final ultimatum; if that was ignored, he would then further approach the courts on an urgent basis with a contempt of court application.

“Samwu has been informed of this move and was provided with a copy of the ultimatum which makes it clear the principle of ‘no work, no pay’ will apply.”

This comes after the metro was granted an interdict by the Labour Court in Johannesburg last week declaring the strike as unlawful and unprotected.

The court order was aimed at ensuring service delivery continued and non-striking employees could go to work without fear of intimidation.

He said the TMPD further also increased its operational deployment to highly affected areas, such as service centres and depots.

“Should it be necessary, administrative TMPD officers will also be called as reinforcements to ensure services continue uninterrupted with no staff intimidation.

“Employees who have been identified as intimidating others or causing property damage will face disciplinary action or immediate dismissal.”

Williams said the metro was also busy quantifying the damages and costs incurred because of the illegal strike as means to issue a bill against Samwu for the wasteful costs incurred.

“This unlawful strike action is purely a political act to create instability in the city in the run-up to the election. The vast majority of metro staff have an eagerness to work and serve their communities, and have every right to do so in a peaceful environment.”

Samwu Tshwane regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane said the union was angered by mayor Randall Williams’ claims that unions were “politicised”.

“The utterances by the mayor have not sat well with workers who have now gone for months without a salary increase. Instead of attending to the legitimate demands of workers, the mayor has been quoted as saying that workers are fighting a political battle.

“Ours is not a political battle but a battle for the implementation of salary and wage increases as agreed upon.”

Tladinyane said the local government elections had no bearing on “this fight”.

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