Icasa strike drags into sixth week
Picketing action by striking workers at the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) has stretched into a sixth week.
Workers are demanding salary increases back-dated to 2015 and bonus pay from 2014.
Other demands include the reversal of human resource policies and restructuring that took place in the 2014/15 fiscal year.
Icasa said last month that it had previously decided on an agreement with the Communication Workers Union (CWU) on revised employment conditions, but workers said the union failed to represent their mandate.
The disgruntled workers then discontinued their CWU memberships, and they went on strike at the beginning of July this year without union representation.
The striking workers, though, signed up to the National Trade Union Congress of South Africa (NTUC) last week as the labour action dragged on.
“The strike is going into its sixth week, but the negotiations are ongoing,” Suzan Mashinini, organiser of the strike, told Fin24.
“On Friday, we sat until 20:00 in the evening, and then we made our proposals. The management is now sitting today to discuss those proposals in a bid to resolve the strike,” Mashinini said.
Six weeks of striking has taken its toll on the workers, especially as Icasa has a ‘no work, no pay’ policy, said Mashinini.
The strike started out with 152 workers but on Monday it had between 110 and 120 workers, according to Mashinini.
“You must see our faces; they are bruised. We’ve got blemishes. Our hair is running out,” Mashinini told Fin24.
“The stress you can see – it’s showing,” she said.
But Mashinini said the workers are hoping for positive developments after three meetings with management over their dispute.
“We do not know what the outcome will be. But today, for us, it is a breakthrough. It will then determine whether we are on deadlock or not, depending on what they will bring from that meeting,” Mashinini told Fin24.
Spokespeople from Icasa were not immediately available for comment.
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