The Gauteng Legislature has called on the municipal workers’ union and the City of Tshwane to submit a mediation process over the ongoing wage increase protest in the capital, but Mayor Ciliers Brink doesn’t thinks will fly.
FILE: Brink said the strike was no longer a labour dispute, but a criminal matter. Picture: @tshwane_mayor/Twitter.
Pretoria – The City of Tshwane says there is no point in negotiating with unionised workers, as it does not have the money for salary increases.
Over the past two months, Tshwane municipal employees affiliated with the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) have been engaged in a disruptive strike over the city’s decision to not effect wage increases this financial year.
Following several incidents of municipal trucks being torched, the Gauteng Legislature has called on the union and the capital city to submit to a mediation process.
READ: City of Tshwane secures permanent interdict against striking employees
However, Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink believes mediation is futile as it won’t bare any fruit.
He added that the strike is no longer a labour dispute but a criminal matter.
“You can mediate many things and you can have conversations about many things, but the one issue you can’t mediate is we don’t have R600 million to grant in salary increases, as the money is not there,” he said.
“The second issue you can’t mediate is about law enforcement. If your neighbour or someone is trying to burn down your house, your neighbour is not going to mediate with the arsonist.”
