The Times *SA braces for strike*/Schools, hospitals and other essential services operating with skeleton staff/
*Sipho Masondo, Zandile Mbabela and Harriet McLea, The Times, Johannesburg, 10 August 2010*
Public services will shut down nationwide today as an estimated 1.3million civil servants down tools, throwing essential services into disarray.
Public servants who are members of trade unions affiliated to unions federation Cosatu and to the Independent Labour Caucus will take part in marches in cities and towns across the country after wage negotiations between the unions and the government stalled.
Thousands of public servants, including some nurses and police officers, are expected to join the marches, leaving hospital wards and the police operating on skeleton staff.
By law, public servants employed in essential services, such as health and law enforcement, are not allowed to strike. But unions said the law does not prevent their members in the health sector and the police from marching, which, they say, does not amount to going on strike.
Thousands of teachers are expected to desert their classrooms and join the stayaway, leaving tens of thousands of pupils, including matriculants, in the lurch.
Last week, unions rejected the government's revised wage offer of a 7% increase (to be raised by 1.5% a year for the next three years) and a R630 housing allowance. They are demanding an 8.6% wage increase and a R1000 housing allowance, backdated to April1.
Thousands of public servants are expected to march to the Union Buildings, in Pretoria, and to Parliament, in Cape Town, and in other provinces.
In Pretoria, workers will present a memorandum of their demands to Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi.
The chairman of the Independent Labour Caucus, Chris Klopper, said the unions' next move - which might be a protracted strike - will be decided by the government's response to the marches.
"On Tuesday, the unions will demand a response to their demands within 24 hours," he said.
Baloyi's spokesman, Dumisani Nkwamba, said the department will announce its position today.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union spokesman Norman Mampane said the union's members will march today and that the onus was "on the employer to provide contingency plans to ensure that services do not collapse".
"In terms of the law, we are not allowed to strike as we provide essential services ... [but] all our members [about 140 000] are mobilised to join the marches," he said.
Police spokesman Colonel Lindela Mashego said all police officers provided an essential service and were expected to report for duty.
"All commanders across the country have been asked to see to it that all police officers are on duty. We are hoping that there will be no disruption of services."
Correctional Services spokesman Manelisi Wolela said: "In terms of the Labour Relations Act, any industrial action [by prisons workers] is prohibited. Correctional officials are therefore expected not to join the strike action as such action would be illegal."
He said there would be no disruption of the routine at prisons.Department of Health spokesman Fidel Hadebe said his department did not have contingency plans for today's protests, but hoped that unions and the government would resolve their differences to prevent a full-blown strike.
"It is obviously critical for [the department] to minimise the impact of the strike on health services, but negotiations are [continuing] and a resolution could still be reached," he said.
Hadebe said that "in case the strike does go ahead", the department would use the back-up methods used in past strikes.
"Because not all hospitals will be affected in the same way, we're prepared to refer patients to hospitals that are less affected," said Hadebe.
He said the department will do everything it can to provide services for those in need.
Nurses' unions said nothing would prevent their members from marching today.SA Democratic Nurses' Union general secretary Freddie Mohai said the government might come up with a better offer once it had seen the "crippling effect" of today's protests.
"We're very clear on the current impasse and the only solution is for our 9000 members to take to the streets," he said.
"The current offer on the table is ridiculous."Klopper said the unions' demands were not unreasonable, considering that their counterparts at Eskom, the SA Local Government Association, SARS and Transnet all got wage increases of 8% or more.
Yesterday, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga said she was concerned that the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, the SA Onderwyserunie and the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA had decided to march only two months before the matric exams.
"We acknowledge, with great concern, that the proposed industrial action will have a devastating effect on all sectors, particularly education [only] 76 days before the start of the grade 12 National Senior Certificate examinations," she said.
Motshekga said the education department's contingency plans included:
* Keeping a teacher attendance register updated twice a day;
* Regular checks to ensure that pupils were not left to their own
devices;
* District officials, principals and school governing bodies
ensuring the safety of the pupils as well as that of non-striking
teachers;
* A hotline to the department on which parents can report
irregularities.
Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said he was expecting a "huge
turnout" for the protest marches.
"There is no going back. The government has tried the workers' patience and they are now tired."
Economist Chris Hart said today's stayaway will have a negative effect on the economy.
"The efficiency of the public sector will be disrupted," he said."Sectors of the economy that depend on the proper functioning of government will be affected."
Hart said that tourism would take a knock as a result of the absence of Home Affairs officials who issue visas.
Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said his department would assess the situation.
*From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article593861.ece/SA-braces-for-strike*
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