SABC News reports that Talks to end the strike action by workers at the South African Bureau of Standards in Pretoria have collapsed. This as the strike enters its second week, with workers downing tools over the company’s restructuring process. They are accusing the employer of unilaterally changing the payment and employment structure, amid concerns that the new plan will have a negative impact on workers’ salaries and benefits. The strike action is said to be affecting Audits, testing and compliance with product certification backlogs across the country.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu)’s leadership has been engaged in marathon negotiations with the management of the SABS for a week with no joy as the strike action drags on at the entity. The union says it has non-negotiables and that the workers will continue with the strike until those demands are met. “Those key issues are that they must end exploitation in ensuring that no one at the SABS is paid below the minimum of the scale, that is a no-go area. The second issue is that they need to move workers into the midpoint of the scale and that can be a phased in process and at no point should the workers be paid below the minimum of the scale including maintaining our benefits and moving away from the cost to company. So, we are not buying that argument is crying poverty, they can optimise their operations,” says Zolani Masoleng, Tshwane Regional Secretary: Nehawu.

The union says the strike action is already being felt in various sectors of the economy where certifications have come to a halt. “The impact of the strike is huge in that there is no one receiving the samples, and these are samples designed to protect the public in terms of the products and services that are offered in the market. The food and water labs, all the test officers are here and the food and water microbiology lab all the test officers are here, and the net effect is that all the food and water samples including distilled water from hospitals and so on they need to be tested within 24 hours of being here. For the past week this samples are sitting there with no one to test and that is the case even in the electric lab, the textile lab and all laboratories including the issue of cement which is a huge revenue generation for them it’s unable to be tested from PPC, LAFARGE, AFRI SAM and all those suppliers are unable to test their products,” Masoleng explains.

But the SABS management says the organisation continues to operate and has implemented contingency plans, hopeful that talks to end the strike will resume soon. The workers remain in high spirits as they maintain that nothing is happening at the entity. “I work for the standards division responsible for the petroleum standards and as I am here there is nothing happening in that division, all the standards writers are here, documents are not going out for public comments, there’s nothing happening and as it is managers are calling us back, but we cannot go in until our demands are met,” a worker said. “We do not like being outside, we represent the organisation in a technical space, our expertise is more inside than outside and what is happening here we are not even proud of. My area of expertise is in testing, I am under the division of lab services,” a worker added.

Nehawu has since written to all entities operating under the DTIC to also join in and issue notices to strike this week, as the union plans a secondary strike at the SABS. The CCMA has also again been roped in to try and intervene. “The employer has now applied to engage the CCMA, they are trying to intervene on section 150 to try to see if they can’t get us together to try break the impasse so the meeting is scheduled for tomorrow either at 10 or 9 o’clock in the morning and we’ve indicated that we will participate in such a process to try find a solution if it can be found,” Masoleng added.

Nehawu says the longer the strike continues, the more disastrous it will be for SABS clients and the country, urging the management to come back to the negotiations with a tangible offer. Nehawu says it’s now pinning its hopes on intervention by Trade Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau to help bridge the impasse at the SABS. The workers have also planned a march to his office on the 8th of August to address issues at the organisation hopeful that through his intervention, issues at the entity would be a thing of the past and the strike action called off.

by Katlego Legodi