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SADTU set to vote on strike over dragging pay dispute Karl Gernetzky, Business Day, Johannesburg, 19 February 2014 THE South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) is due to embark on a strike, saying on Tuesday it had run out of patience over a five-year-old dispute that sees teachers' pay progress slower than that of other public servants. The union has once again thrown down the gauntlet to the Department of Basic Education over basic shop-floor issues and a long-standing demand to see the back of department director-general Bobby Soobrayan. Two-thirds of teachers at many of the poorest schools may join the strike action. General secretary Mugwena Maluleke said on Tuesday that SADTU would begin a balloting process, and there was no date yet when the strike would begin. At the heart of the matter is a dispute between the union and the department dating back to 2009, which sees teacher pay progression grow 1%, as opposed to the 1.5% norm in the rest of the public service, as part of an incentive for satisfactory performance. SADTU on Tuesday accused the department of using numerous "delaying tactics" in a move to avoid closing the gap. "There is clearly no logic behind this disparity and we have now reached a stage whereby after exhausting all the stages in labour dispute resolving, we are prepared to take up arms and go to the battlefield on behalf of our members and teachers in general," SADTU said. Mr Maluleke said the process had been a "whitewash", adding that the working relationship with the director-general had broken down, and "it is impossible to work with this man". Last year SADTU embarked on "work to rule" and threatened a full-blown strike, with agreement, among others, that the department would reopen probes into Mr Soobrayan over what role if any he played in the Limpopo textbook crisis. The Department of Basic Education said on Tuesday that investigations into Mr Soobrayan had been concluded. A disciplinary hearing held under Deputy Judge President of the Gauteng Division of the High Court, Judge Willem van der Merwe, was "above reproach." His findings in December last year concluded that Mr Soobrayan was not guilty on two counts of violating the Public Finance Management Act. National Professional Teachers' Organisation president Basil Manuel said on Tuesday the union was also committed to achieving parity among public servants. However, the union was awaiting the outcome of an arbitration process in the Labour Relations Council. The organisation would approach SADTU to discuss the matter, he said. From: http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/labour/2014/02/19/SADTU-set-to-vote-on-stri ke-over-dragging-pay-dispute -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
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