Nehawu set to protest outside Union Buildings for frontline workers

Nehawu will protest outside the Union Buildings on Monday.

• Nehawu will hold a protest outside the Union Buildings on Monday.
• It wants the president to address them and resolve their issues,
  contained in a memorandum submitted to the Presidency earlier this month.
• Their demands relate to health worker safety and salary increases for
  frontline workers.

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union’s (Nehawu) NEC
is set to protest outside the Union Buildings on Monday to get President Cyril
Ramaphosa to respond “adequately and positively” to their demands,
detailed in a memorandum submitted earlier this month.

READ | Nehawu threatens full-blown
strike over Covid-19 safety

The union’s demands related to health workers who were “getting infected [by Covid-19]
on a daily basis” and were “denied their salary increases and bonuses
as public servants and risk allowance or motivational incentives for frontline
workers”, the union’s spokesperson Khaya Xaba said in a statement on
Sunday.

“A total of 32 429 health workers had contracted the virus while
257 lost their lives as of September 11, 2020 as per the statistics provided by
the National Department of Health.

“In this regard, we will not fold our arms while we are losing our
members while government continues to insult workers by refusing to implement
Resolution 1 of 2018, especially Clause 3.3,” Xaba said.

Nehawu said it had written to the Office of the
President on 11 September explaining that their ultimatum had
expired and their intention to withdraw their labour.

ALSO READ | ‘Workers had to resort to using
refuse bags to protect themselves’ – Nehawu report

“As Nehawu, we believe that our demands contained in the memorandum
are urgent, reasonable and they deal with issues of life and death,” he
added, saying similar protests would take place at all premiers’ offices across
the country.

Xaba said they will not leave the Union Buildings or premiers’ offices
until the president addressed them and their issues were resolved.

“These protests will run concurrently with the ongoing lunch hour
demonstrations and mobilisation for the complete withdrawal of our labour power
in all sectors we organise if our demands are not acceded to by the
president,” Xaba said.

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