National Education Health Allied Worker’s Union (Nehawu) has formally lodged a dispute in response to a proposal put forward by Rhodes University on how the R10-million set aside for support staff should be shared out.
National Education Health Allied Worker’s Union (Nehawu) has formally lodged a dispute in response to a proposal put forward by Rhodes University on how the R10-million set aside for support staff should be shared out.
Nehawu and the National Tertiary Education Staff Union (Ntesu) protested a month ago, raising their concerns about increasing wages for support staff members at the university. Other concerns included, speeding up the remuneration process, long service leave for other support staff members and promotion to higher posts.
In terms of wages, the director of Human Resources, Sarah Fischer says that the university has decreased the salary percentage for staff in the higher grade (senior management) to increase the amount for staff members represented by Nehawu.
Fischer says, "No extra money will be needed to fund the adjustments decided by the council as the increase in the percentage at grades one to five [catering and cleaning staff]will be paid for by lowering the senior management’s remuneration percentage from 72% to 70%, top management from 64% to 62% and the Vice-Chancellor’s to 60%."
However Nehawu argued that 60% of the R10-million put aside for all proposals should be equally divided between grade one to eight which includes catering staff and 40% of the same amount to be equally divided among grades nine to 18, which ranges from senior management to the Vice-Chancellor’s post.
Nehawu has declared a dispute and referred the matter to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration. Nehawu’s regional chairperson, Judy Ngoqo says the only issue that the union is not supporting is the council’s decision on the remuneration market adjustment but it has accepted the other proposals.
On the other hand Ntesu has argued that "long service leave and previous merit increments should be used to differentiate on an individual basis."
In response to the long service issue the council says "the issue of individual differentiation is to remain on the table for future discussions related to long-term remuneration." In terms of the catering staff the council has decided to no longer use different catering scales.
