IOL latest.png Doctors' trade union dissolved Theto Mahlakoana, IOL, Johannesburg, 7 March 2016 The South African Medical Association (SAMA) trade union has been dissolved as the organisation admits to service delivery challenges to members under its current model. The move will have a number of ripple effects including COSATU's loss of an affiliate. SAMA's board of directors penned a letter to members recently, explaining that the adjustment was meant to improve and optimise represetantion of employed doctors in both private and public institutions. Public sector doctors were the union's main members, while specialist and private practice general practitioners were catered to within other divisions of the association. "The public sector division of SAMA houses the Industrial Relations and Collective Bargaining units. These have served members with labour related matters and kept the voice of doctors in the public sector bargaining chamber system. SAMA registered as a trade union in 1996 so it could, in line with changing labour legislation, serve its public sector members accordingly," read the statement. However the board said after a number of failed attempts to expand the union's functions and structures, it had decided to move the public sector doctors back into the main organisation. "As per the Trade Union constitution, over the last two years, attempts have been made to try and set up institutional, regional, provincial and national structures; however these have for a number of reasons not been possible in most areas, with the result that service delivery to membership has not been optimal," said the board. While an interim committee had been setup to deal with the transition, it was unclear what would become of existing union leaders who were elected in line with its constitution. The board also said it was liaising with the office of the Labour Registrar to ensure SAMA continued to represent its members in all collective bargaining processes. Labour Bureau From: http://mini.iol.co.za/business/news/doctors-trade-union-dissolved-1994542 -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
