Latest / Drive with John Perlman / New Mayor, Same Bill - SAMWU Says R10.3bn Wage Deal Must Stand

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New Mayor, Same Bill - SAMWU Says R10.3bn Wage Deal Must Stand · Drive with John Perlman

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Well, let's focus our attention now on some other very,
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: very big numbers. And I'm talking about the salary settlement
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: that Johannesburg has wrestled with in regard to some 35,000
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: municipal workers, many or most of them belonging to the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: South African Municipal Workers' Union. My understanding is that a
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: deal which has been on and then off again and
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the subject of court disputes is now actually something that
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: has been signed, settled. I'm not sure what we should
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: actually call it. Let's welcome 2702 Drive, Feral Havaji, Associate Editor.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: at Daily Maverick, who's been following this story very closely indeed. Feriala,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: very good afternoon to you, and thanks for making your
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: time available on an extremely busy day. What do we
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: know about the Joburg Metro Samu deal?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: I know, John, that it was a push through last
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: night and surprised many of us when it popped up
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: as a press release. If you read the press release,
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: you'll see that it's really, really opaque. It says that
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: an addendum to the agreement has been struck and it
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: doesn't say what that includes or how much has been
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: agreed by the unions. What we do know is that
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: one billion rand of the politically facilitated agreement has been
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: paid for the year. This means adjustments to... Wage grades,
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: it's different to the annual increase when about 5 billion
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: rand was promised as part of the agreement which was
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: negotiated by Advocate Terry Motau.
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: So the original settlement, I've got a number in front
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of me, 10.3 billion, is that correct?
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: That's over three years, it's correct.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Okay, so over three years, National Treasury has stepped in.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they've stepped in in a way
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: that says we're going to stop this going ahead, but
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: they've certainly made it clear Johannesburg doesn't have the money.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Would this agreement be binding on the next administration? I
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: assume it would.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: So I think this is going to be the big
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: first reporting after the results come out. I do believe
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: that agreements are binding on the next administration, which would
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: explain why it was so quickly put through. You'll see
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: many examples of this, I think, emerging in the coming weeks.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: I don't think the Treasury is going to allow this
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: because you would have seen that at the weekend, the
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Finance Minister, Enoch Gordon, threatened a Section 39 intervention if
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Johannesburg didn't come right, if it didn't start managing its
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: finances properly.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: We don't always get flattering comments made about municipal workers
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: when their work is discussed or when wages and protests
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: come into the conversation. But would it be fair to
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: say that perhaps the way the municipal workers are portrayed
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: in this dispute is somewhat unfair? This is money around
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: which there was an agreement made. And if they are
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: angry at not being paid what they've been promised, do
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: they have a point?
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: They do have a point. In the detail, and maybe
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: we could chat about this another time, when councils were
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: consolidated and recreated early in our democracy, so you'll see
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: smaller councils, the pay scale is different, big ones, big
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: complex ones, people earn more, and that adjustment was never
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: made in Joburg, and that is very clearly what was negotiated.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: I suppose the simple thing right now is that it's unaffordable.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Was it ever affordable? And I realize that answer may
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: not be a simple yes or no, but has the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: deal been put in jeopardy, as have so many other things,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: by the increasing inability of the city, A, to manage
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: its finances, and B, to effectively spend money it has?
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: I suppose the difficulty with a deal like this is,
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: If the services were excellent, if we weren't also paying
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: contractors 30% of the $ 97 billion budget. Then I think
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: people would say our workers are doing really well. I
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: think job workers are people generally with big hearts who
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: want to do the right thing. Services are excellent. We
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: can see the effort going into it. We can see
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: that the call centers are answered immediately. We feel a
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: sense of service from the people who work in the city.
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: Then I think it would be an easier sell. But
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: because it's such a hassle and we are at an
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: election day with many areas without water, if I was
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: driving around today and the condition, the picket up strike
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: has really caused the city to look terrible, then there's
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: also regular power cuts. That makes it difficult to sell
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: an agreement like this as much as it may be
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: and is legitimate based on the history of the dispute.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: We had a major electrical problem in the place where
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I live. And I got chatting to the workers who
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: are trying to do something to fix it. I won't
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: go into details about what I thought might have been
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: some inefficiencies. in in in their approach but the comment
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: was fairly uniform i mean they said listen we we
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: would fix this stuff we don't have the cables we
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: need we don't have the stuff they need and they
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: said the money that is needed to fix things keeps
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: getting chowed i mean your point is well taken that
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: You know, if people saw value for money, there might
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: be more behind the workers who deliver the services. But
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in a way, is there more of a potential for
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: some kind of alliance between the employees and the residents
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: and ratepayers?
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: I think most of us know or many of us
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: know fabulous people who work for the city, who go
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: above and beyond the call of duty. And there is
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: a lot of chowing happening. And we know they are MacGyvers.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: You know, they make things happen even when their stock
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: rooms and their storerooms are completely depleted because the city
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: owes suppliers so much money. Nobody will give it credit lines.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: They have great people working for the city. And if
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: only they weren't put in this position.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: Feryal Hafti, thank you. Daily Maverick, check out their coverage
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: today on the Daily Maverick site of that agreement reached
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: and it would seem signed between the South African Municipal
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Workers Union and the people who currently run the city
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: of Johannesburg.