The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has rejected Rhodes University Management’s final wage offer and has decided to refer the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
The National Tertiary Education Union (NTEU) has rejected Rhodes University Management’s final wage offer and has decided to refer the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
NTEU has been in talks with the University for some time about the new wage deal.
Oscar Eybers, the National Office Bearer for Gender and Transformative Affairs at NTEU, said that the main problem with the latest offer was the 40 hours per week that all support staff would be expected to work.
"Our main concern is the intention of management to increase working hours without a reciprocal wage increase," he said.
"The 40 hours was a non-negotiable for management. We think it a miscalculated strategy to increase productivity, but management has not sufficiently engaged with us on the topic. There are other ways to go about this."
The new wage deal would affect more than 150 NTEU members.
Some of these members would see a decrease in their hourly earning rate of 6.75%, as the wage increase would not fully cover the increase in working hours.
In February NTEU asked its members what they thought about the wage offer and decided to reject it based on their response.
Of their members who voted in the poll, 75% didn’t want to accept the offer, 22% wanted to and 3% abstained from voting.
NTEU has therefore decided to refer the matter to the CCMA, which deals with dispute resolution in the workplace by advising on how the situation should be resolved.
Eybers said that the CCMA have been notified of their concern and they will be making a formal approach on 17 March.
"Our position in one of principle," said Eybers. "We will accept the outcome of the CCMA finding."
