Cape Town - A two-week wage deadlock between the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has been broken with an agreement reached on a 6% salary increase.
Nehawu general secretary, Zola Saphetha, said the two parties agreed that workers on salary level 3 to 8 would receive a 6% salary increase; workers on salary level 9 to 10 would receive a 3% salary increase and workers on salary level 11 to 12 would receive a 1% salary increase.
Saphetha said implementation of the salary percentages would start at the end of the month.
“Salaries shall be backdated to April 1. Furthermore, workers who are on salary level 3 to 8 will also receive a non-recurring once off payment of R1457 of which 271 of our members and workers will benefit,” he said.
Nehawu provincial secretary, Eric Kweleta, said as part of the agreement, the NSFAS management also agreed and committed itself that no one shall be victimised for participating in the protected strike.
The strike, which saw hundreds of NSFAS employees protesting in front of its buildings in Wynberg from October 5, followed after the union served the employer with a notice to strike on September 25, with salary negotiations started on June 12.
NSFAS administrator Dr Randall Carolissen said they fully acknowledged that there was an urgent need to build and maintain relations among the two parties, which would be in the best interest of both organisations.
Carolissen said a concurrence was reached to utilise and involve the services of the CCMA for relationship building and a pre-salary negotiation workshop, before the start of 2021 salary negotiations.
“Both parties have committed to binding themselves to the workshops before the end of January next year,” he said.
Saphetha said they would continue to partake in the transformation of NSFAS, including playing a crucial role in changing its orientation from being a loan scheme into a subsidiary vehicle for free education for deserving students, especially those from working-class background.
Cape Argus