Cosatu and its affiliate, TGWU, have noted with concern the growing perception in the media that the Government has embarked on a process of restructuring the taxi industry without consulting the relevant stakeholders.
We would like to place on record that they have consulted the TGWU on issues affecting this industry. As the representative of workers we have given restructuring our full support. The union believes that many owners and drivers in the industry are being misled on the issues.
We have been involved in this process since the establishment of the National Taxi Task Team. From the start there were extensive consultations around the question of regulation and formalisation of the industry, one aspect being the taxi recapitalisation process.
Why exactly do TGWU taxi driver members support the project?
Already negotiated regulations require the registration of all operators. The taxi recapitalisation project will help to speed up the registration process making all other aspects of regulation easier. It will remove unscrupulous and illegal operators.
TGWU does not deny that there will eventually be fewer drivers in the system. With the regulation of conditions of work, TGWU anticipates that drivers will work shifts. Drivers will no longer be working up to 20 hours in a day. On long distance routes, two drivers will become the norm.
The whole process of recapitalisation goes hand in hand with the expansion of services, maintenance, fuel supply and taxi ranking. This process will create jobs and give drivers the first option of retraining to enter these areas of operation.
Presently most drivers work long hours for wages based on passenger numbers. This is an incentive to overload and drive too fast. TGWU has been looking for a means to regulate hours and establish a basic wage. The union has participated in various regional hearings conducted by the Department of Labour in a quest to establish such basic minimums. Presently there is no means of calculating the overall turnover of the industry, and the basis for setting a fair wage is not obvious. The new vehicles will have on-board computers that will record passenger numbers and hours on the road.
The new vehicles will be designed to strict safety specifications. The taxis presently on the road are not.
Until the winning bidders are announced, no-one knows for sure exactly how much the new vehicles will cost. They will be more expensive than the existing kombi taxis to meet all the safety specifications. The difference is that the government will pay between 20% and 30% of the cost of the new vehicles. The owner will now have access to proper financing at preferential rates for the remainder of the cost.
Regulation of the taxi industry will bring owners into the tax paying net. Anyone who earns a decent income whether as profit or by a wage has an obligation to pay tax. How else are we to meet the reconstruction and development objectives that we fought for during liberation?
We also support the project because it promotes the local manufacture of vehicles. Presently most kombi taxis are simply being recycled in the system or are imported.
The crucial point is that we need to move from an industry characterised by:
The regulated industry will:
This means that:
We call on the Minister of Transport to convene an urgent meeting of all unions represented in the industry so that the nuts and bolts of implementing the issues which directly affect workers in the industry can be discussed and that public misperceptions be put to rest.
For
further information, contact:
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Close to 700 workers at Ferrometals in Middleburg faced disciplinary action after they took part in a lunch-hour picket in support of COSATU's job loss campaign.
The company issued notices for workers to attend a disciplinary hearing. It claimed that the action was not protected by the LRA.
Numsa wrote several letters to the company, demanding that it withdraw the notices.
Numsa is highly disturbed at the company's action. It is clear that Ferrometals does not care about workers and the hardship these job losses cause. The union will take this matter up at federation level.
The situation in the plant is very tense. Workers believe that the protest action was legitimate because it took place during lunchtime. The production process was not disturbed.
It is possible that Ferrometals is not happy with the campaign to fight job losses because they have been part of job destruction. Close to 300 workers currently face retrenchment. Management failed to call meetings to discuss ways of creating jobs in the Job Creation Forum that they established.
Ferrometals' actions are in total contempt of the LRA. The company has always treated workers with an iron fist, even on issues that they could resolve quickly. Numsa believes that the company has a bad culture of social injustice and dehumanisation of workers. Management's conservative approach will worsen the situation and harden workers attitudes.
| For more information contact: | Stephen
Nhlapho at 083 632 6986 or Dumisa Ntuli at 011 - 832 2031 or 082 973 7282. |
Numsa leaders had their ears close to the ground during February. The 'ears to the ground' campaign is an attempt to get members involved in changing policy at Numsa's 6th National Congress in August this year.
Although the National Congress is the highest decision making body in Numsa, in the past members had little input into what happened there. If they were lucky, they knew who the delegates from their local were, and could tell them what Numsa policy they were unhappy with. Nevertheless, most union members have never had this opportunity.
This year Numsa has developed a bold plan to try and change this. During February, shop steward committees in every workplace held general meetings. Shop stewards used Numsa News to help the discussions. Big posters in the newsletter asked members questions such as:
"Do you feel that Numsa is still a worker-controlled union?"
"Do the decisions the unions takes reflect your views? If no, how can we revive worker control?"
"In the 1980s, members took an active part in union activities. This promoted worker control. Now members do not want to attend union activities as much as before. What can we do to make workers attend again? How can we liven up our meetings?"
"Many workers are complaining about the gap between shop stewards and workers. They complain that shop stewards are:
- forgetting mandates and accountability;
- management lackeys ;
- using their positions to advance to management positions;
- not committed to the workers' struggle.
What do you think?"
Shop stewards recorded workers' views. At the end of February/beginning of March, each of Numsa's 51 locals held Local General Meetings. All members were invited to attend these. Discussions and ideas from these forums will be included in regional preparations for Congress.
There are other plans to keep members informed while the Congress is going on, but that is another story.
For now, it is all ears to the ground!
24 March 2000 – Parktonian Hotel
The Conference on Service Delivery has the theme: Unions Committed to Service Delivery.
| Today
we are realising a dream spelled out in a COSATU 6th National
Congress that a service delivery conference be held so that we can define
the role our members must play in the transforming the public service
into a service oriented machinery that makes a difference in the lives
of our people.
The theme only underscores the long-standing commitment of COSATU affiliates and members to transforming the state in order to improve services to our people. |
|
After all, COSATU members for many years fought to bring about a democratic government that could serve all our people, not just a minority. For this they paid dearly. This struggle for liberation was not just a narrow fight to have a right to be treated with dignity by our white oppressors. It was a struggle for freedom against humiliation our people were subjected to in the police stations, hospitals, post offices, municipal offices, etc.
The convening of the conference by COSATU is a testimony to our commitment as revolutionaries to the ideal of a meaningful freedom – a liberation that must make a difference to the life of an ordinary women, students, youth, workers and etc.
We do not need to remind anyone of the hardships so many of our members suffered in order to bring about a democracy that would bring decent and equitable education, health, welfare, policing, housing and basic services to our communities.
Certainly a minority of public servants have not lived up to their commitments. Some are corrupt or simply do not do their work. These elements some within our own ranks have caused maximum embarrassment to our organisations. They have in the process undermined the public confidence to the public health, education, and other state provided services. This crisis of confidence is reflected on the number of children who risk early traffic to the former white suburbs in search of education.
But the vast majority work hard to serve the community. We think about the nurse doing twelve-hour shifts, the police people risking their lives on and off duty, the teacher working weekends to tutor students, the construction workers labouring long hours to help rebuild roads after the recent floods.
As we speak at this conference, our members are dispelling the notion that their unions are merely "economistic." They disproving that they only interested in themselves only. In addition at this conference, we taking this forward by helping to create a necessary environment for them to take their commitment to service delivery to new heights. We have always been dedicated to a broader vision of labour than just defending short-term interest.
Of course, it is not wrong to defend our members' interests. We do not think the public interest requires that public servants accept falling living standards, lesser labour rights, or job losses at a time of mass unemployment.
But in the public service, in particular, we have to defend our members in ways that contribute to the transformation of our state and with it to the reconstruction and development of society as a whole.
The restructuring of the state, in particular, imposes burdens on public servants. Teachers must accept redeployment away from their homes, nurses must take on new responsibilities around primary health care, police must learn new ways of dealing with crime in an environment that protects human rights.
The COSATU affiliates in the public service have played a leading role in ensuring that transformation occurs, in seeking ways to improve service delivery that will not impose excessive costs on public servants. Their office bearers will talk about specific measures they have taken to that end.
Here, let us just consider some of the major accomplishments achieved in co-operation with the state, through negotiated agreements.
The service and skills audits, agreed in 1998, aimed to bring about a rational and well-researched restructuring of government to meet social needs. The aim was to define community needs, and determine where government structures and functions could not adequately meet those needs. On that basis, changes would be introduced. Redundancies would be dealt with as far as possible through retraining and redeployment.
This was the only attempt at a systematic and careful assessment of government systems. Unfortunately, the employer decided to slow down the process toward the end of last year, although it has now reaffirmed its commitment to finalising it.
The teacher redeployment and rationalisation process in 1999 brought about substantial equalisation of teaching staff between schools. The process ensured much greater equity in education for all our children, by shifting teachers from relatively overstaffed schools to those with a shortage. As a result, the aim of reasonably sized classes for all could be realised.
The next phase in this process, which SADTU is pursuing through its work in the Education Labour Relations Council, is to ensure greater equality in terms of subjects in all schools. In particular, we need to ensure that all learners have equal access to maths, science and arts education.
A final example is the new disciplinary and incapacity codes for the public service, signed at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council early in 1999. These codes vastly simplify disciplinary procedures and introduce effective ways for dealing with incapacity for the public service.
Previously, these areas had been regulated by complex, highly legalist requirements in the Public Service Act - a system that militated against fair and effective discipline and capacity development. That is why we saw corrupt public servants suspended for years at a time on full pay, rather than reaching a quick decision and ensuring appropriate action.
It is to the credit of our affiliates that they recognised this problem and worked hard to introduce more expeditious procedures, while ensuring that their members enjoy adequate protection from unfair or untrue wild sweeping allegations.
But while we recognise the dedication of public servants to improving services, it is important to understand that individual efforts are not enough - and that, equally, the failure of individuals to carry out their jobs is not the fundamental problem behind poor service delivery in this country.
Deming, the person who brought efficiency and quality to the fore in industrial management, argued that individual effort could only account for 10 to 15 per cent of productivity improvement in any company - systems and resourcing were far more important.
Service are bad in South Africa, first and foremost, because of the history of apartheid that deprived services in black communities of the infrastructure and skills they needed.
For instance, a survey in 1996 found that:
Virtually all of these deprived schools are in black areas, especially former homelands. And of course, we all know about the shortages of textbooks and training for teachers in dealing with the new curriculum.
Given these conditions, does it make sense to say the matric pass rate is low because teachers aren't working hard enough? That does not excuse teachers who are not pulling their weight. But to improve the situation, and to deal with demoralisation, we must look at all the factors that affect the quality of education. We cannot use workers as scapegoats for the broader failure to accelerate service delivery.
A particular factor that we at COSATU are concerned about is the cutbacks in the budget for the big social services - cutbacks that have led to renewed calls for cutting back on services and personnel.
In this past year, the budget declined in real terms for all functions except defence, skills development, general administration and the contingency reserve. That means that health, education, policing and welfare stagnated or fell. Infrastructure fell even faster in real terms. This year's cut in funding adds to the overall shrinkage since 1997, which has seen a 5-per-cent cut in the overall budget.
To ask public servants to make good this fall by working harder ignores the realities. Without adequate medicines, textbooks, police cars or telephones, public servants cannot improve services. Even in the poorest communities, which are somewhat protected because of policies aimed to equalise services, we are engaged in a desperate struggle simply to maintain existing standards.
COSATU argues that the policy of setting tight deficit targets has caused unnecessary budget cuts, and should be revised.
But the public service unions have also endorsed proposals that would free up funds for improving services even within the current deficit targets. These proposals are:
We must again emphasise the critical role that organs of peoples power and individual members of our society can play to improve service and change the culture of the public sector into service delivery oriented. We reiterate the call we have made for workers and the rest of the society to participate in school government bodies, in hospital boards, in police forums, etc.
The environment that must lead to the improved service delivery must be improved in the overall. The unions and workers must play a critical role in changing the culture. Government must provide adequate resources and deal with the inequalities that persist, our people must develop a citizenship conscious and play a role in monitoring and solving local condition that inhibit delivery. Only when this forces work more in partnership with one another can we be guaranteed of a better life.
As workers we are once again taking a lead, we call on every one else to join us in a struggle for improved service delivery to our people.
Thank you,
