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Johannesburg - Hospersa members at the SA Council for Social
Service Professions (SACSSP) have embarked on an indefinite strike, the union
said on Monday.
The workers in Gauteng wanted an 8% pay rise and
a R1 200 housing allowance.
David Rambau, Gauteng provincial secretary of the Health and
Other Service Personnel Trade Union of SA (Hospersa), said employers had
negotiated in bad faith.
The SACSSP is the national body that registers and regulates
the social services profession. It has a staff complement of 12, excluding the
CEO and two managerial posts, which were vacant.
"The employer (SACSSP) did not show any interest during
the negotiations. They were summoned before the CCMA and they did not
pitch," he said.
Rambau said the employer also failed to respond to two
letters from the commissioner, and that led to a legal strike.
Strikers had been preventing social workers from entering
the SACSSP offices in Pretoria, he said.
As a statutory council, the SACSSP did not fall under the
public service, hence it could not benefit from public service salary
negotiations.
"Some of the staff members, with many years service,
receive salaries below the entry levels of Grade two cleaners in the public
service," Rambau said.
Efforts to get comment from the SACSSP were unsuccessful.
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