City successfully hosts a Labour Lekgotla
Harmonious labour relations within labour are crucial for the City of Johannesburg’s service delivery agenda.
It is, therefore, critical for structures meant to provide platforms for dialogue between labour and the employer to function effectively for labour stability to be maintained.
I am delighted to announce that the City successfully convened a Labour Lekgotla over the weekend. This was the first of its kind after several years of strife within the labour unions, which have constrained our engagements on issues of mutual interest.
The main aim of the Lekgotla was to try to reach consensus on the restructuring and composition of the Local Labour Forum (LLF) in light of the many developments happening within the City, including among others, the reintegration of the ME’s into the City Administration.
The one and half day Lekgotla was attended by representatives from SAMWU, IMATU, and the City led by the Group Corporate and Shared Service department. I was joined in attendance by MMC Funzela Ngobeni and MMC Michael Sun. The Acting City Manager and CEO’s/MD’s from the Entities were also in attendance, thus affirming the seriousness with which the City take this structure.
The Executive Mayor, Cllr Herman Mashaba addressed the Lekgotla on the first day and reiterated the commitment of his “administration to establishing a close working relationship with trade union movements”. Mayor Mashaba urged all the parties to work together and join his efforts to improve service delivery to the residents of Johannesburg and serve with pride.
The Main Collective Agreement (MCA) signed between CoJ and labour in 2015 prescribes that union representation into the LLF be a total of 12 (twelve) members with both SAMWU and IMATU recognised as the representatives of labour. Currently, the membership of unionised staff members in the City shows that SAMWU enjoys the majority support and according to the ratio their representation is 7 (seven) members, whereas IMATU has 5 (five) members.
Given the challenges within SAMWU and the pending court case, it was therefore resolved that each group will bring equal representation of 3 (three) members to the LLF, with the 7th person being a SAMWU official agreed to by both sides. It is for this reason that we are encouraged by this interim measure as we hope it will enable LLF to convene and attend to the urgent matters that concern City Employees.
We are therefore looking forward to the sitting of the LLF tomorrow, Tuesday 05 December 2017, which will discuss among others the draft terms of reference.
At the same time we are also hopeful of robust, honest and frank discussions to make our City function effectively and to create conditions for labour stability, necessary for the provision of quality and uninterrupted services to our residences.
For more information, please contact:
Karabo Seane
Stakeholder Manager: Group Corporate and Shared Services
Email: KaraboSea@joburg.org.za
Cell: 081 776 0122
