The state and the teacher unions fired their opening salvos in this year wage negotiations.

The unions are demanding the following:

• Wage demand: Salary increase of 11% (Cost of living adjustment)
• Implementation date:  1^st April 2010
• Term of agreement:  A single term, due to the global economic crisis and adverse economic conditions

Additional demands that have been tabled are:

• To immediately resolve the housing benefit by increasing the allowance from R500 to R1 650 to promote home ownership,
• To immediately resolve the unequal medical aid subsidy by providing equal subsidies to all employees,
• The implementation of all outstanding matters in PSCBC Resolution 1 of 2007 and Resolution 5 of 2009.

The Employer has indicated that they need to study Labour’s demands and will return to Council as soon as possible
within the next two weeks with their counter proposal.

Council has agreed that an independent facilitator will be appointed to chair the salary negotiations.

The state is offering the following:

1. A salary adjustment of 5.2% effective on 1 July 2010.
2. Finalize proposals, negotiate agreements and implement all other outstanding matters in terms of Resolution 1 of 2007, namely,
   Long Service Awards, Recognition of Qualifications, Night Shift Allowance and Housing Allowance by 30 September 2010 as per
   the agreed processes in Council.
3. The finalization and full implementation of OSD and related  aspects.    (Source: Naptosa)

The employer and labour will return to the bargaining table on 20 May 2010.

The school year is still in it’s infancy but I’m already in need of a break. Today, faced with a rowdy, overcrowded grade 9 class, my thoughts turned to this brilliant poem by Roger McGough. Read here.

The unions have been informed by letter (click here) that some educators will not be paid the full amount of OSD with respect to their recognition of experience, on the 18 December 2009. The system calculated the years of service from the time PERSAL was integrated in 1992. Those affected will have the rest of their monies paid out in January 2010. Colleagues, I can’t say I’m surprised – the Department has handled this whole OSD issue with an immense amount of clumsiness. Lets wait until tomorrow and see what happens.

A message from SADTU to it’s membership, dated 25 November 2009

Patience, consistency and collective leadership in the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) have finally paid off; OSD will be implemented in full before Christmas. After months of waiting, teachers will finally receive their Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD), not partially, but in full. SADTU leadership collectively, did not rest but continued to fight in order to secure the full amount in the current financial year as opposed to the initial proposal of 1st April 2010. In October 2009, the Department of Education (DoE) offered to make a R2, 3billion partial payment of OSD for Recognition of Experience and a once-off cash bonus for Senior and Master teachers by 30 October 2009.However, the payment was not made due to pressure on the payment system (PERSAL) to implement the annual salary increase. The employer promised to pay at the end of the salary increase run in November but could not commit to a specific date.

In order to try to get further commitment on the date of payment, yesterday (24 November) SADTU sent letters of demand to the DoE and DPSA for a written undertaking. In response, the department announced it would pay for the full agreement in the current financial year. This would therefore mean that the partial payment would not be implemented by the end of November. PERSAL would be loaded on 14 December 2009 for payment on 18 December2009 for the Recognition of experience, pay progression(3%) backdated to 1st July 2009 and once-off 3% bonus for the senior and master teachers. The supplementary payment for the upgrade of teachers (those with REQV10 -12) would occur on 24 December 2009.

ISSUED BY: SADTU Secretariat

The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, declared in parliament that the much-maligned OBE system was dead. (Click here to read her statement). But now it seems that rumours of the death of OBE may have been greatly exaggerated. Motshekga has done an apparent about-turn, stating now that the way in which things were done under the OBE system is being done away with but that there will be no policy changes. The changes will include relieving teachers of the administrative burden under which we toil. Methinks that the Minister did not consult the powers that be in the ANC before she made this bold statement. If OBE were to be scrapped it would represent an admission on the part of the ruling party that it’s grand vision for education policy in post-apartheid South Africa has ended in abject failure.

According to the NAPTOSA website, the Director-General of the Department of Education has stated that the OSD payments (for Recognition of Experience, and the once off 3% payment for qualifying senior and master teachers) will not be reflected on the salary cheques at the end of October 2009.

In his letter, the Director-General says “We have been informed by PERSAL that they are under extreme pressure to ensure that all payments for the general salary increase are effected by the end of October 2009. They will not be working on any OSD payments until they have completed the general salary run.”

No date has been given for the payment of the OSD. NAPTOSA will keep members informed of developments.

It seems as if some finality has been reached regarding these two vexing issues

With  regard to the salary increments, the employer has stated in  the DPSA Circular 6 of 2009:

“ The DPSA is working with National Treasury (PERSAL) to complete the implementation of the salary adjustment programmatically by the latest 31 October 2009. It must be noted that the salary adjustment will be backdated effective from 1 July 2009”

With regard to the OSD issue, the employer has stated that it has R2,3 billion available to partially implement collective agreement no.4 of 2009 by 30 October 2009 (aspects to be implemented are the recognition of experience to all who qualify and the once-off payment to senior and master teachers. The remainder (3% salary progression and upgrading of REQV 10 -12 to REQV 13) is to be implemented on 1 April 2010. The above proposal is subject to agreement by parties to the council.

On October 5th every year World Teachers’ Day is held around the world. The day provides the community with an opportunity to celebrate and recognize the important contributions made by teachers in young peoples’ lives everyday.

The theme for 2009 is “Build the future – invest in teachers now”. This theme requires the Government to invest in education in order to improve the quality of the teachers in the classrooms as well as improving their conditions of service.

According to reports from NAPTOSA, a special meeting of the ELRC was convened for yesterday (30 September) at which the protracted OSD and salary sagas were discussed. Basically, the news is not good for educators. For full story, click here.

Just one gripe – why am I, as a SADTU member, having to log onto the website of another teacher union to be informed of the latest developments. SADTU’s website has been down for some time now, and even when it was up and running, it did not convey any real news to it’s members. Could it be that SADTU regards these issues as not really being important to it’s membership. If this is the case, then they are sadly out of touch with their membership.

The ELRC convened on 4 September 2009 and the employer stated that they have secured “some” funds to cover the costs of the terms agreed to in the Collective Agreement 4 of 2009, signed by SADTU amidst much fanfare not so long ago. The unions demanded that the employer returns to the ELRC on 8 September 2009 with details of how much funds they’ve secured. The employer reported to the ELRC on the agreed date, indicating that the Joint Mandating Committee of the Cabinet could not conclude on the matter and as a result the OSD funding issue has been referred to Cabinet.