Africa-Press – South-Africa. Cape Town – The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) has claimed victory after the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) ordered the ANC in the province to reinstate nine dismissed Parliamentary Constituency Office (PCO) administrators no later than February 15.
The party was further ordered to pay each of the workers back pay to the sum of R141 920 by no later than February 15, according to the CCMA award.
The workers, among whom a number were long serving with more than 13 years employment, were unfairly dismissed on December 31, 2019, when the ANC caucus did not renew their contracts as expected, said Nehawu regional secretary, Baxolise Mali.
“The dismissal arose because of the failure of the ANC caucus to renew their fixed term contracts whereas they had a reasonable expectation in line with section 186(1)(b) of the Labour Relations Act, and also with ANC Caucus having a history of renewing these contracts which created reasonable expectation to these workers. The national union subsequently declared a dispute and referred it to the CCMA on February 20, 2020. The sitting down of the matter was delayed by the hard lockdown,” he said.
The matter eventually sat down in October and was last deliberated on, on January 19.
“The CCMA has ruled in our favour. The workers are happy with the outcome of the award which came out after months of being unemployed which ordinarily would cause stress a lot more to breadwinners.
“They hope their employer will implement the award so that they can contribute to the wellbeing of the ANC, and by implication, to the wellbeing of the South Africans through the support they provide for MPLs. This victory should serve as an inspiration to other workers that such cases are winnable, and they should not cower when employers use underhand tactics to dismiss them,” said Mali.
CCMA Director Cameron Morajane said the award in the matter was rendered on February 2.
In the arbitration award, CCMA senior Commissioner David Wilson said he was satisfied that the respondents’ decision to terminate the contracts of all the administrators due to the closure of two offices was unfair.
“Taking into account all of the circumstances, and particularly the fact that a number of the contracts had previously been renewed despite the stipulation in the contract that they would not be capable of renewal, the fact that employees continued to work for four months after the expiry date of the contracts without any communication from the employer regarding the expiry of the contracts, and the fact that the work being done by the applicants continued to exist, I find that the applicants had a reasonable expectation that their contracts would be renewed.
“The failure of the respondents to renew the contracts of the applicants on the same or similar terms and conditions constituted a dismissal on the grounds of their reasonable expectation of the renewal of their contracts,” Wilson found.
Speaking to the Cape Times on Thursday, one of the workers who asked to remain anonymous, said he could not hold back tears of joy when he heard the news.
“I’m over the moon. The moment I think about the hardship this dismissal has caused to me and my family, I can’t hold my tears of joy from falling.”
The ANC’s Pat Lekker said they were still studying the contents of the ruling.
“The provisions of the Labour Relations Act makes a provision for review applications if the need arises. The ANC caucus will brief the Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) and release a statement once it has satisfied itself that the award is that of a reasonable decision-maker,” Lekker said.
ANC’s Western Cape convener Lerumo Kalako said they were awaiting a report from the legislature to ascertain the facts. Thereafter, a decision would be made.
“We will be asking for the report from the caucus to explain to us the issue because we have not been part of the process. We will also get from them on what is the next step because we don’t have as the ANC the records of the CCMA on this issue, so we do not have the facts of what happened. We are depending on information from the legislature, and then we will make a decision,” Kalako said.
SACP Provincial secretary Benson Ngqentsu said: “The SACP called on the ANC in the province to take action against all those who were involved in the irresponsible and counter-revolutionary practices of subjugating and condemning the workers into poverty and unemployment. Further, the monies spent to pay lawyers for this case must be taken from all those who presided over the dismissal of the workers.”
Cape Times
