Unions call on workers to join nationwide strike on International Day of Decent Work

By Nomonde Zondi

DURBAN - Trade unions will on Monday embark on a nationwide strike, demanding urgent reforms on key issues, including fair wages for workers and an end to profit-driven retrenchments by employers.

October 7 is International Day of Decent Work and a Cosatu provincial secretary, Edwin Mkhize, said the day would be used to highlight challenges that are affecting workers.

He noted that companies were retrenching workers to cut costs in order to make more profits. “We have a list of those companies,” he said.

“We want the companies that have not been contributing to the pension funds of the workers to be held accountable. Some employees have told us that they had experienced delays when they wanted to withdraw their money from their pensions,” he added.

Mkhize said that most workers are forced to choose between buying electricity and food, as wages continue to decline while the cost of living remains high.

He emphasised that with the salary negotiation season under way, they want the government and municipalities to provide public servants with fair wages.

Mkhize urged workers nationwide to come out in numbers to join the march.

Cosatu members in the Northern Cape will embark on a march to the Office of the Premier in Kimberley to draw attention to the challenges faced by workers, including high unemployment rates and the rising cost of living.

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A manager of the Public Servants Association in KZN, Mlungisi Ndlovu, said they would also be joining the march under the Federation of Unions of South Africa (Fedusa), in solidarity with other unions and organisations advocating for workers' rights.

“Our participation in the march underscores our commitment to: protecting jobs and preventing unfair retrenchments, promoting decent work, fair wages, and better working conditions, and advocating for policy changes that benefit workers and the broader society,” said Ndlovu.

He said the PSA was also concerned about the increasing trend of retrenchments in the private sector.

Ndlovu said that while some companies were genuinely faced with financial difficulties others used retrenchments to boost profits at the expense of workers, undermining job security and worker’s rights.

A provincial secretary of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), Ayanda Zulu, said they would also be joining Cosatu’s march on the basis that they also have workers who were not earning decent salaries.

“We have workers called Community Health Workers who are providing primary health-care in communities. During the Covid-19 pandemic they were key in contact tracing. They are still earning a stipend and we are calling for the government to absorb them,” said Zulu.

The chief executive of the National Employers' Association of South Africa (Neasa), Gerhard Papenfus, has criticised the march. He said it boggled the mind that Cosatu, a “marginalised worker representative body for government employees was embarking on a pointless and self-serving endeavour harbouring under the delusion that it can impact any public discourse on any of the issues it allegedly wants to address”.

“What is even more ironic is that the tripartite alliance (the ANC, Cosatu, and the SACP), with its inability to govern effectively, its business-hostile policies, and its obsession with its socialist ideology, is responsible for the weakened economic conditions which cause the retrenchments and the rise in living costs they now protest against,” said Papenfus.

He noted that protest action has been approved by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) and is therefore protected.

“Any employee who wishes to participate in the protest action may do so and no disciplinary steps may be taken against such employee,” added Papenfus.