The South African Municipal Workers Union, SAMWU, in the North West, is not backing down on its fight to force the Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM), to pay workers the Covid-19 danger allowance.
The striking workers were demanding back payment of R1 000 on top of the R1 500 they were paid during the pandemic.
GTLM tried to interdict the striking workers but the North West High Court court dismissed their application.
SAMWU’s provincial secretary, Vincent Diphoko, said the strike started after the workers were paid only R1 500 for danger allowance during Covid-19 restrictions Instead of the R2 500.
He said they’ll continue to engage the municipality after it violated a council resolution.
“We are still going to engage the municipality to pay these workers what is due to them. We cannot leave it as it is because there were council resolutions, and there were engagements.
“But the municipality does not want to adhere to what they have agreed to. But early in January, we will have meetings with the municipality and our members. What is due to workers must be paid.
“It’s as simple as that, we will never leave this matter unattended. We will never give up until our members are paid,’’ Diphoko said.
He said the case dismissal by the North West High Court was a victory for them.
“The matter was dismissed without any cost from both parties. If it were up to us, municipalities shouldn’t be taking issues to court without trying to resolve them with unions. This just proves that workers are raising genuine issues. This is a victory for SAMWU,” he said.
Our attempts to solicit comments from the municipality were unsuccessful.
