UP and workers reach agreement

The University of Pretoria and its workers have reached an agreement, bringing an end a two week strike and campus closures.

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Pretoria - Phased-in insourcing, wage increases, medical benefits and the chance to study at the university are among a list of issues agreed on by the University of Pretoria (UP) and workers on Wednesday, bringing to an end a two-week strike and closure of the city campuses.

An agreement on the insourcing of campus services was signed on Wednesday by a commission which included elected representatives of contract workers, students, organised labour and university management, which will set into motion the resumption of normal activities at the university.

Operations are set to resume on Thursday as the general workers return to work while learning is expected to start on Monday.

“We are elated, over the moon in fact,” Joel Tseke, from food services, said after the agreement was signed.

“This is a victory which will improve the quality of life for many workers,” he said.

That the university had agreed to insourcing was one of the most important achievements of the protest action by the workers, he said.

General workers last week shut the university down as first year students tried to register and returning students arrived on campus.

They argued against the continued outsourcing of services, which they said robbed them of employment benefits and left them vulnerable in the face of job insecurity.

A list of demands was the subject of tough negotiations at the commission on outsourcing, and seven were agreed on Wednesday morning.

Among these was the start of the absorption of workers in February, which will see salaries rise to R5 500 for the absorbed workers.

The provision of full benefits for workers and an increase in salaries across the board would see the R5 500 steadily increase to R10 000 when all contracts ended in 2018.

“Workers earned as little as R2 000 in some departments, and were unable to meet the basic medical needs which will now be taken care of for free at the campus clinic,” Tseke explained. In addition, workers who qualified would be able to study at the university for free, as would their dependants who met academic requirements.

“It was more like a civil war, where we had to force millions out of the pockets of some and put it into the pockets of those who deserve it,” said student representative and Economic Freedom Fighters member Naledi Chirwa.

The commission also agreed to ensure that no worker was victimised or intimidated for their role in the protests; that the university would start negotiating for the release of workers from contracts that bound them to outsourcing; and that they would become entitled to medical and pension benefits as soon as they were insourced.

UP spokeswoman Anna-Retha Bouwer said: “The members of the commission agreed on issues which included salaries and benefits, job security, return to work and the insourcing process.”

She said that a phased approach to the insourcing of services linked to the expiry of existing contracts had been proposed, and in the interim a top-up of existing salaries would be implemented.

The workers on Wednesday said they would be celebrating the landmark achievement, with one worker saying: “Once we are absorbed by the university and become part of a bigger community, we will be free of the abuses our bosses subject us to within the companies we work.”

ntando.makhubu@inl.co.za

Pretoria News