Striking UP workers welcome mediator
"An independent mediator is necessary for the negotiations because the university could not lead in fair decisions.”
University of Pretoria (UP) workers have welcomed the appointment of a mediator in their nine days old strike.
“I was pleased that an independent mediator was availed to the workers and the university to iron out this matter,” said
Academic and Professional Staff Association of South Africa (Apas) national organiser Sam Khuti.
Khuti said an independent mediator was necessary for the negotiations because the university “could not lead in fair decisions”.
He was hoping for a judgement on the matter on Thursday.
Staff, belonging to the union, have been protesting outside the university’s entrance gate on University Road.
The union members have been waiting for their demands to be met after handing over a memorandum of demands on Wednesday last week.
ALSO READ: University of Pretoria denies ‘toxic’ working conditions claims
Some of the union demands include salary increases of 10% with R3 000 once-off across the board; a bonus in the form of a 13th cheque; a childcare facility for workers’ children; housing and car allowances; and payment of leave (including for study, maternity and paternity leave) backdated to 2019.
The EFF’s UP branch office said contractors at the university faced issues such as overtime, being underpaid, dismissals to replace them with outsourced contractors and no employee benefits.
UP said it was not possible for it to bring the benefits of protesting insourced staff in line with that of employees without putting the university’s financial sustainability at risk.
UP spokesperson Rikus Delport said the university had several meetings with Apsa to resolve the issues they had highlighted.
He urged the Apas’ leadership to “meaningfully” engage with the university to find solutions to the issues raised.
Delport said further that the university had extended several benefits to insourced staff members from 2016.
He said this significantly improved the benefits and conditions of service that staff members were entitled to before insourcing.
Previously, UP denied allegations about unfair working conditions made by striking staff members belonging to Apsa.
“Benefits and working conditions are better than what is required by law and the respective sectors,” Delport said.
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