This week eVoice looks at major developments on the pensions front, opening up opportunities for those who were discriminated against in the past on the basis of race or gender. We also respond to attacks on teachers mounted by the unholy alliance of the DA, ID and Cope. In the next edition we hope to give more information on collective bargaining to inform the 2009 salary negotiations and the process of mandating through teacher forums.

Pension Justice

SADTU National Negotiator, Kippie Peane, reports on meetings of the PSCBC in January to address implementation of pensions resolutions and training of Provincial Task Teams.

By way of background, Resolution 7/98 recognised years of non contributory service as pensionable service in the GEPF for employees disadvantaged by past racial or gender discrimination. The PSCBC agreed that funds representing 1% of the reduction in the funding level of the GEPF will be utilised for this purpose. DPSA then requested all national and provincial departments to register all possible beneficiaries to allow them to buy back their non pensionable service in the GEPF and that process is finalised.

Resolution 12/02 further identifies other discriminatory categories for redress and these are as follows:

Employees discriminated against on the basis of race, gender or status of employment:

• General assistants( casual workers) in regard to the waiting periods before admission to the GEPF
• All other persons who had to complete qualifying periods before admission to the Fund.
• Female teachers and other females in the public service who lost pensionable service due to changes in marital status were admitted to the Temporary Employees Pension Fund.
• Female teachers who had to resign to give birth and upon return, were admitted to the TEPF.
• All students who were denied membership of a government pension fund based on the status of employment eg. a fixed term contracts.
• RSA citizens who were employed in the former TBVC states.
• Employees admitted to the TEPF due to medical/physical status (ie. overweight or underweight)

Employees dismissed for participating in strikes

• Employees of former TPA and certain Free State hospitals dismissed for the 1987 strikes.
• Employees affected by the 1988 dismissals in the former Natal Provincial Administration.
• South African Police members dismissed in 1990.
• Employees dismissed for participating in the strikes in the TPA between 1991 and 1993.

Duties of the Provincial Task Teams

• To obtain new applications from potential beneficiaries and compile lists
• Prioritize applications of exited employees
• Develop a checklist of all regional offices/sites
• To market the opportunity to new applicants
• To validate new applications
• To communicate the results of the exercise to the departments and their employees

Process to be followed:

• PTTs to organise workshops
• PTTs receive and verify applications
• Chambers receive and record all application forms and forward to the PSCBC for submission to the GEPF
• Chambers to submit progress reports to the PSCBC task team every 2nd week
• PSCBC task teams to obtain progress report from the GEPF monthly
• PSCBC task teams to monitor the process every 2nd week

Acceptable documentary proof

• Z125 with gum label
• Appointment letter
• Certified ID document
• IRP5/ITB3
• Service/staff record salary advices
• Leave records
• Re-appointment letter
• Dismissal letter
• Pro forma affidavits (the pro forma affidavits are to be used as a last resort by the PTT in exceptional circumstances where persons have applied and gone through the validation process and their service record or years of service cannot be confirmed)

Communication

• Dedicated communication on the process will be undertaken through;
• Pamphlets and posters
• Electronic media
• Print media

Dates for provincial workshop as submitted by Chambers

• 6 February ’09( Mpumalanga and Western Cape)
• 10 February ’09 ( KZN and Northern Cape)
• 11 February ‘09( Limpopo)
• 16 February’09 ( Eastern Cape)
• 17 February’09 (Free State)
• 24th February ‘09( North- West and Gauteng)

Recommendations

The negotiators therefore recommended the following to SADTU:

• Each province must ensure that they have representation at the provincial workshops.
• That national negotiators be deployed to provinces to workshop PEC’s and REC’s.
• Teacher forums, the Voice, eVoice be used to communicate information to members.
• Regional secretaries must form the monitoring committees to assist in checking and verifying all the required documentation for application.

NB : PTT members are expected to work from 8am to 4pm five days a week, and DPSA will take care of human and physical resources to make sure that this project is successful.

SADTU rejects cheap politicking by DA-ID-Cope

This week the ID and DA publicly called for teachers to be banned from acting as electoral officers. SADTU regards this as cheap party politics in advance of the up-coming general elections. Teachers – often the most educated individuals particularly in the rural areas – have assisted with local and national elections since 1994. To our knowledge there have been no complaints or charges of misconduct during that time.

The argument of the DA-ID appears to be this: that SADTU is aligned with the ANC through COSATU, that the majority of teachers belong to SADTU, therefore teachers should not be allowed to act as electoral officers. This is a cheap and baseless attack on the integrity of our members and teachers in general. Electoral rules and legislation, and IEC supervision protect the public from unwarranted political interference in the voting process.

What really lies behind the DA-ID campaign against SADTU is their antipathy towards strong trade unionism – a position they share with Cope with its stated objective of trying to divide and de-politicize trade unions.

They will not succeed in their attempts to silence us. As SADTU we openly proclaim our support for the Alliance and the ANC in the forthcoming election. As part of COSATU, it is vital that we participate in order to reinforce the pro-poor and pro-working class bias within the ANC. We believe the ANC manifesto demonstrates the effectiveness of this strategy.

We therefore encourage all members to support the ANC and to continue to campaign for the ANC – outside of school hours. Teachers should also continue to do their civic duty and to volunteer to assist with the elections, irrespective of their political loyalties.

We also reject the DA-ID charges that SADTU’s political alignment is disruptive of schooling. In this respect, the Union fully supports the stance of the African National Congress to prioritize education and to call upon all stakeholders to commit to a code for quality education. To this end SADTU has pledged that all teachers must be on time, well-prepared for lessons, and behave in a professional manner at all times.

SADTU is opposed to the wanton disruption of schooling, and indeed has, on many occasions, called upon its members to provide additional tuition over weekends and during school holidays.

The hue and cry raised by the DA-ID is therefore simply pre-election propaganda. These are the facts:

• of SADTU’s 500+ branches, one branch called a meeting for 13h00 on a Friday afternoon, during January
• one of the items on the agenda was the elections campaign
• the meeting was a site stewards meeting, consisting of one representative from each school; ie schools were not closed and learning was not disrupted
• time off for union business is by agreement with the employer in terms of an agreement in the Education Labour Relations Council (PAM chapter G, para 3.3.b) and also enacted in the Employment of Educators Act. Such arrangements have been in place for over ten years and are common in South African industrial relations.

www.sadtu.org.za