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The National Health Minister Joe Phaahla and Limpopo Health MEC Phophi Ramathuba have finally conceded to meeting with the workers to resolve a myriad of issues following sustained pressure from the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers. On Thursday, 21, October 2021, the Union’s General Secretary cde Success Mataitsane met with a delegation from the minister’s office in a bid to address the workers’ demands.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, in Limpopo, the leadership of the Union, joined by the National Organiser Solly Malema and Saftu representatives, took the fight to the doorstep of the arrogant MEC.<\/p>\n
At the centre of workers’ demands is the call for the department at the national and provincial level to absorb community healthcare workers (CHW) and those contracted under the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP). The disgruntled workers are also demanding their back-pay and an end to rampant corruption in the department.<\/p>\n
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We cannot over-emphasize the critical role played by these workers in keeping the health system from collapsing. The work they do is rightfully classified under essential service. It boggles the mind that government sees nothing wrong with keeping these workers in limbo for years through exploitative fixed-term contracts that they have unlawfully imposed.<\/p>\n
The employer has been contravening provisions of Section 198B of the Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 as amended. The department cannot demonstrate a justifiable cause for putting workers of fixed contracts for years on end.<\/p>\n
NUPSAW wrote to the minister on Monday, 18 October 2021, requesting an urgent meeting in order to find a way to deal with the workers’ long-overdue concerns. The department indeed agreed to a meeting on Thursday.<\/p>\n
But to our dismay, the minister was not available. Speaking to his subordinates would have been an exercise in futility, and that’s why we demanded the audience of no one else but minister Phaahla. After a tedious back and forth with officials, the office of the minister eventually agreed to set up an appointment between workers and the minister soon after the elections.<\/p>\n
In Limpopo, scores of NUPSAW descended to the office of MEC Ramathuba, and we were disappointedly met by her delegates. We refused to engage them and insisted on meeting with the MEC herself, whose display of arrogance is unparalleled. But as a result of the militant demonstration, the MEC agreed to meet with the leadership of NUPSAW on 9 November 2021.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At the centre of workers\u2019 demands is the call for the department at the national and provincial level to absorb community healthcare workers (CHW) and those contracted under the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP). Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":87433,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["entry","author-communications","has-excerpt","post-87432","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nupsaw.org.za\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}