Our previous circular letter REF: CL.PRASA.BF.027, dated 01-09-2022 refers. .
The Prasa Bargaining forum took place from 07 November 2022 to 10 November 2022 and was attended by:
- Deputy General Secretary N Haasbroek
- Exco Member N Fingita
- Exco Member M Mashige
- Exco Member H Tikum
- General Secretary C van Vuuren
Unfortunately, DGS Haasbroek became ill on Monday 07th November 2022 and Comrade Tikum could not attend the full day on 10th November 2022 as he took ill. Since Comrade Haasbroek took ill from Monday, GS van Vuuren stood in for DGS Haasbroek.
Various of the agenda items was a repeat of previous items which had not been finalized during previous Bargaining Forum meetings that has been held, when management reported on these long outstanding issues. The feedback was no different than in previous meetings. Labour requested a caucus and unanimously decided to inform management that their feedback is unacceptable and that we demand a meeting with the Acting Group Chief Executive (AGCEO), Acting Group Human Capital Manager (AHCM), Acting Group Chief Financial Officer (AGCFO) and several other Senior managers before we continue with the meeting.
After a while Management came back and indicated that the AGCEO, AHCM, AGCFO and the rest of the managers will make themselves available for a meeting on Friday 11th November 2022 at 08H30. Labour placed the following items on the agenda for discussion with the AGCEO, AGHCM, AGCFO and the rest of the managers:
- Dispute on unilateral implementation of the policies
- Non-compliance to implementation of the salary increase for the Bargaining unit employees as per the 2020 wage agreement
- Non-payment of overtime
- Compulsory medical aid
- Gibela shares
- Wellness program
- Contract workers being used in Prasa
- Ziveze Directive
- Shosholoza Meyl (MLPS) return to service program
- Labour involvement in recruitment process
The Bargaining Forum meeting continued after the meeting with the AGCEO, AGHCM, AGCFO and the rest of the managers was confirmed. Most of the rest of the week up until Thursday was consumed with discussions on the rest of the matters such as performance management, conditions of employment contractors being used in Prasa to perform work instead of the Prasa employees and so forth. Labour made their stance very clear during the discussion on these matters, we will not entertain anything that will be or could potentially be to the detriment of our members.
On Friday 11th November 2022, the Labour delegation met with the AGCEO, AGHCM, AGCFO and the rest of the managers at 08H30, although we had a very limited of time to discuss the issues as mentioned previously, the following issues was discussed with the AGCEO and his team:
- Non-compliance to implementation of the salary increase for the Bargaining unit employees as per the 2020 wage agreement
- Non-payment of overtime
- Compulsory medical aid
The feedback on the issues that could be discussed in the limited time are below.
Non-compliance to implementation of the salary increase for the Bargaining unit employees as per the 2020 wage agreement
- Prasa has approached Treasury for financial assistance, this assistance is in the form of converting CAPEX (funds which is used by a company to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as property, plants, buildings, technology, or equipment) to OPEX (funds which is used by a company uses on an ongoing, day-to-day basis to run a business or system). Prasa has requested that 7Bn rand is converted to OPEX, however, this is insufficient to even cover the money they need to cover their operational expenses. UNTU wishes to remind its members that we are still fighting for the monies that is owed to them as a result of the non-compliance of Prasa to the salary agreement of 2020, we are still pursuing the matter in the Labour court and as previously reported, we are awaiting the Labour Court Judge ruling so that we can execute a seizure and sale of Prasa assets so that the employees can be paid the money that they are owed. Comrades, we are the only Union that is still pursuing this matter, none of the other unions in Prasa has brought legal applications against Prasa in this matter.
Non-payment of overtime
- The GCFO indicated that he is working on a solution for the payment of the overtime that has not been paid to the Employees, he indicated further that the conversion of the CAPEX to OPEX as mentioned in the previous point will assist in financing the Overtime, it is Prasa’s intention to obtain and utilize 60million rand from Treasury to finance the payment of outstanding overtime monies.
Compulsory medical aid
- This matter was addressed with the AGCEO, and it was indicated to him that the directive that was passed in 2016 / 2017 which made medical aid compulsory must be overturned, there was no violent objections to this demand, and they have indicated that they will consider this suggestion seriously to assist the employees at least to some extent.
Contract workers being used in Prasa
- UNTU raised the utilisation of contract workers in Prasa as a matter of priority, but when we raised it, all hell broke loose from SATAWU side who opposed it as a priority, for the sake of being able to at least cover some of the elements that we wanted to discuss with the GCEO and his team, we conceded and agreed to discuss it in the next meeting with the AGCEO and his team, if we did not do this, we would still be arguing with SATAWU on this matter and would have lost the opportunity to address some of the matters with the AGCEO and his team.
Going forward, UNTU will be requesting a separate meeting with the AGCEO so that the important matters can be progressed.
It was agreed that there will be a follow up meeting scheduled as soon as possible in the near future with the AGCEO, AGCFO, AGHCM and the rest of the managers so that Labour can be addressed by the management team on the exact strategy on turning the business around, generating revenue and what Prasa’s plan is to meet the obligations to our members in terms of the Salary agreement of 2020.
Members will be kept informed as these issues that are in the Bargaining Forum progress.
Esteemed greetings,
C van Vuuren
GENERAL SECRETARY
