LABOUR
Home affairs hopes to avert strike
Posted Thu, 31 Aug 2006
Home affairs department officials are upbeat that a possible strike by immigration officers at ports of entry on Friday could be averted.
"The department is confident that what it presented [to the
unions] yesterday [Tuesday] is more than sufficient to deal with
the matters in dispute," employee relations head Ronald Oppelt told
the National Assembly's home affairs committee on Wednesday.
Therefore, if the Public Servants' Association (PSA) went on
strike as planned it would be unfair and unreasonable, and enough
reason for the department to take legal action to prevent the
strike, he said.
The department had addressed and dealt with all issues that were
in dispute.
"We believe we have tabled more than was asked [for by the
unions]."
The department met all the unions representing immigration
officers on Tuesday to inform them of the job evaluation results
and the implementation plans.
All unions had "bought into the process",
barring the PSA, which
indicated it needed to consult its members and would communicate
its decision by Thursday morning.
The PSA represented 614 of the about 1163 immigration officers,
the National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu)
about 442, and smaller unions the rest, he said.
Thus, if the PSA decided to go ahead with the strike, only its
members — about 50 percent of all immigration officers — would be
affected, Oppelt said.
Home affairs acting Deputy Director General Lorraine Makola said
it was hoped the PSA would accept the evaluation results and
implementation plans.
If not, the department would seek an urgent court interdict to
prevent the strike. Top management was also drawing up contingency
plans for a strike situation, she said.
Oppelt said PSA members were not the only immigration officers,
and non-striking personnel would be redeployed and others brought
in to ensure there was no disruption at any port
of entry.
He was confident the department could deal with the situation.
Committee members were not so confident however, with many
expressing doubts about the contingency plans and expressing the
opinion that the department would not be able to cope. Some even
wanted President Thabo Mbeki to intervene.
Committee chairperson Hlomane Chauke emphasised the committee was
concerned about the plight of immigration officers, and that the
impact of a strike would be severe.
MPs also expressed their anger over the fact that they had to
learn about the threatened strike through the media and not from
the department itself, and the apparent delay in departmental
action after the PSA declared a dispute on June 12.
Chauke, unhappy about the department's treatment of the
committee, said it was clear there were problems in home affairs.
The committee had identified the issue of immigration officers a
long time ago and been raising its
concerns about their pay and
working conditions for about five years in various forums.
But, it had received no feedback from the department on how the
issue was being dealt with.
New problems, such as fraudulent identity documents and the
like, cropped up in the home affairs department almost every day,
but all the committee was told was "we are dealing with the issue".
The committee had spent a lot of time and energy on oversight
issues, but "nothing is happening", he said.
Sapa
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