Umhlanga school accused of not fulfilling promises made to staff

Umhlanga school accused of not fulfilling promises made to staff

Some maintenance workers at a Umhlanga school have accused management of failing to keep promises made to long-serving staff members.

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Workers represented by the Educators Union of South Africa held a picket in April, highlighting grievances around salaries and working conditions at Reddam House. 

 

The union's Mxolisi Cekwana says the school's management made numerous promises, but workers' issues remain unresolved. 

 

Cekwana says the school has also revoked the union's recognition.

 

"They must work to try and make awareness to the employer to say the employer must come back to the table and begin to debate with us the way forward so that we have a common understanding, but the employer decided after that march to say we exposed the employer and they decided to terminate our recognition.

 

"They are not happy with the union's intervention and that the grievances of the employees are being exposed."

 

A woman, who works as a cleaner at the school, says they want a salary increase and equal treatment.

 

"To resolve these issues, we need money, and they know exactly about the estimation we spoke about and what amount we were expecting to get from them. They must allow our union back to work on the school premises like before." 

 

The Inspired Education Group, which owns Reddam House, says although EUSA only represents 2.4% of their staff and is not a recognised union, they are aware of the salary concerns raised by a minority of the staff. 

 

The group says it recently implemented measures, including a temporary hardship allowance for specific staff members to address financial pressures.

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