Check out the details about Nehawu Salary Increase 2024: Will the Salary at Nehawu Increase in 2024 or not? from this article. Different information about Nehawu Salary Increase 2024: Will the Salary at Nehawu Increase in 2024 or not? and other essential details are included in this article.
Nehawu Salary Increase 2024
National Education Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) went on strike earlier this year due to wage disputes with the government. The government presented an offer to increase the salaries for 2024/2024 to the trade unions that were negotiating with them.
Although most of the trade unions signed the wage adjustment agreement, NEHAWU didn’t sign the agreement. This is because NEHAWU wanted to negotiate the previous year’s settlement before signing the current year’s negotiation.
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Will the Salary at Nehawu Increase in 2024 or not?
In light of the strike done by trade unions, including NEHAWU, the Department of Public Services and Administration agreed to start negotiations for the 2022/2024 wages. They reached this agreement on March 14. This negotiation agreement also applied a no work no play principle, but the employees who participated in the strike would not be disciplined for doing so.
According to the information, one of the spokespersons of NEHAWU said that they would first resolve the previous year’s matter. They cannot look into the issue of the current year if they have previous unresolved issues. Other trade unions that also didn’t sign the agreement included POPCRU, DENOSA, and SAPU.
The agreement that other trade unions signed included an average salary increase of 7.5% in the 2024/2024 financial year. The negotiation with the participating unions started on February 17, 2024, and was concluded on March 31, 2024.
NEHAWU refused to sign the agreement of the salary increase in the 2024/2024 financial year because of the previous implementation of a 3% wage increase in the 2022/2024 financial year.
In 2020/2021, the public sector workers saw a major salary decrease due to the change of employer’s decision on implementation of clause 3.3 of Resolution 1 of 2018. Furthermore, this decision was made during the pandemic, which further escalated the situation.
Moreover, in the midst of the dispute, the employer again offered a 4.7% increase in salary. However, NEHAWU said that they just converted the cash gratuity that is being received in the baseline.
According to NEHAWU, the employer only offered a 0.5% increase. This is because the 4.2% gratuity will go into the baseline. This means that the only increment given by the employer is 0.5%.
In addition, converting the R1000 cash gratuity into a 4.2% increase to the pensionable baseline will be like going backwards, disadvantaging workers in lower salary levels.
The 3% increment was way below the CPI. Therefore, the NEHAWU believed that resolving the dispute of the 3% increase should be prioritized before starting the negotiation on the salary increase for 2024/2024 and 2024/2025.
Despite that, the government made a statement indicating that they had reached a conclusion. NEHAWU believed that the government was not interested in resolving the 2022/2024 salary dispute.
The statement of conclusion includes a summary of the negotiations and the list of the trade unions that were part of the negotiation. Moreover, they also mentioned the names of the trade unions that refused to sign the salary increase agreement for 2024/2024.
After this, the NEHAWU went on strike on March 6, 2024. They met with the employer on March 10 – 11 and presented their issues. However, the employer was not in favour of the process and demanded that the NEHAWU return to the current negotiations (2024/2024).
NEHAWU intensified their strike on March 13 to demonstrate how serious they were. After this, they reached an agreement to start the negotiations for the 2022/2024 salary.
More information on the negotiation, terms, salary increase, strike, press release, and statements can be learned by visiting the authorized website of the NEHAWU. Furthermore, the agreement of the 7.5% increase that was signed by most of the trade unions can be found on the authorized website of the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council.
On August 3, 2024, NEHAWU signed an agreement of a 7% increase in the water utilities with the South African Associations of Water Utilities.
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What is NEHAWU?
NEHAWU was established in 1987 by workers from the Health, Education, Social Welfare, and Government sectors. NEHAWU is affiliated with the COSATU.
NEHAWU is one of the largest trade unions in South Africa. It is headquartered in Johannesburg. The current president of NEHAWU is Mike Shingange, and the first deputy president is Nyameka Macanda.
