THE National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) in the North West said on Wednesday that it has noted the intention by the North West Parks Board not to pay salaries of its members and general workers this month.
This comes after the acting Chief Executive Officer Gys van der Merwe issued a letter on Tuesday informing Nehawu and workers that salaries will not be paid.
“The letter from the acting CEO did not clarify the reason for the non-payment of salaries except to say that they are still waiting for a grant from the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism,” said Nehawu provincial secretary Patrick Makhafane in a statement.
“As NEHAWU, we condemn this ill-treatment of our members and workers by the board and we call on them to pay the salaries with immediate effect. Workers have financial responsibilities that they must fulfil and unfortunately, their financial commitments will not pause while the board is hogging their salaries.”
“We are very disappointed by this high level of incompetence and unprofessionalism and we view this as provocation. NEHAWU is a union that is always battle ready and we will not hesitate to pick a fight with the board and the CEO if they continue to treat workers with sheer disregard.”
Makhafane said Nehawu’s members and workers work under very strenuous conditions, and by law they should be remunerated on time.
“We strongly believe that this high level of incompetency and unprofessionalism exposes just how weak and leaderless the North West Parks Board is. It must be noted that we will not think twice in taking the battle to the doorstep of this so called “care taker CEO”,” said Makhafane.
“We call on the employer to secure the payment of the salaries of our members before the end of business today, 20th April 2021. Any further delay will leave us with no choice but to unreservedly combat this despicable conduct by the employer.”
Nehawu called on MEC for the Department of Economic Development and Tourism Keneetswe Mosenogi and her collective to urgently and promptly attend to this matter “before all hell breaks loose”.
“Without fear of contradictions we do not harbour any spot of doubt to fight in defence of the labour rights of our members. It must be a matter of public knowledge that we do not care where the money will be sourced from and the employer must not even think of making his problems our problem,” said Makhafane.
“As far as our own desire is concerned, if circumstances force us to fight, we can and will fight to the finish. In conclusion, NEHAWU in the province refuses to allow its members to be victims of the failure of bourgeoisie tactics.”
- Inside Politics
