As the South African public service broadcaster SABC marked its 75th birthday on 1 August the situation between the corporation and the Broadcast, Electronic, Media & Allied Workers Union (BEMAWU), the Media Workers Association of South Africa (MWASA) and the Communications Workers Union (CWU) remains tense.
This is due to the unions’ on-going claim that the SABC has not properly consulted them with regard to its proposed new Operating Model and Turnaround Strategy.
The SABC did not respond to Screen Africa’s request for comment at the time of going to print.
On 1 July the SABC sent out a notice to the three unions that they planned to reduce the headcount at the corporation by 700-800 people to “improve efficiencies and effectiveness’. The letter, sent by SABC group executive: Human Capital Services, Justice Ndaba, stipulated that 500 to 600 employees would be reduced in the 2011/2012 period, and the balance in the 2012/2013 financial year.
The unions reacted strongly to the letter, calling plans to retrench workers illegal. BEMAWU president Hannes du Buisson says they threatened the SABC with an urgent interdict. “They withdrew the letter, which nullified the dispute,’ says Du Buissson.
“The official view is that the SABC can’t consult with us on voluntary retrenchment until they’ve consulted on the new Operating Model. It would be foolish to let go of experienced and core employees until you know what your strategy is going to be.’
Du Buisson says that following the McKinsey Audit of 1997 more than a
1 000 people at the SABC were retrenched, many of whom had to be rehired at higher salaries because their skills were still needed. “We want to avoid a similar process of haphazardly retrenching people,’ explains Du Buisson.
BEMAWU is also concerned about the SABC Content Hub which they say is “very costly and cannot work in the matter that is proposed’, and the fact that there are approximately 12 general managers working at the SABC with no staff reporting to them.
Du Buisson says the last time they met with the SABC they were presented with a number of documents. “It’s impossible for us to get a proper idea of the Turnaround Strategy from these documents. We need a full information sharing session where the process leaders make proper presentations to be interrogated by the unions. Three months ago they said this would happen soon, but we are still waiting. Only once the presentations have been made and we have gone back to our union members to get feedback, can we go back to management for proper consultation to start. That is what is required of the consultation process, but it hasn’t happened,’ says Du Buisson.
They are also “greatly concerned’ about the continuous recruitment and appointment of new staff members at the SABC. “We can’t prompt or push the SABC to consult us, the onus is really on them, but we are really adamant that they can’t implement the Turnaround Strategy if they haven’t consulted us. If we find that they have been selectively implementing the strategy, we will look at an interdict,’ says Du Buisson.
MWASA followed a different route and took the matter to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
According to MWASA general secretary Tuwani Gumani, they declared a dispute due to the “piecemeal’ consultation offered by the SABC, and they believe the SABC’s notice to reduce the headcount strengthened their case “by demonstrating the SABC’s unsustainable, characteristic, non-standard appreciation of the concept of consultation’.
They were directed by CCMA commissioner Eddie Thlothalemaje to start the dispute afresh, and to hold several conciliation meetings facilitated by an independent person. “Clearly a delaying tactic,’ says Gumani.
“We indeed followed the process as directed (under protest) and we exchanged the statements of case and held the stipulated meeting where we all agreed that the only issue was the all-encompassing matter of the failure of the SABC to consult on the entire Turnaround Strategy initiative. The dispute also encompasses the announcement of the intention to retrench +/-800 staff over the next few years as part of the Turnaround Strategy initiatives. We demonstrated that the matter of the mooted retrenchment of the over 55 year-olds was equally an aspect of the dispute as provided for by section 84 of the Labour Relations Act (LRA). In fact the SABC’s intended action was illegal by all standards, however toned down in terms of terminology used to describe the veiled intended retrenchment. The very act of making the offer for early retirement outside statutory consultation is not supported by the LRA.’
MWASA has now referred the matter back to the CCMA head office to schedule a new date for final arbitration, and have requested that it happen under the auspices of a different senior commissioner.
“The demand, prayer, proposed and only remedy or relief is for the SABC to arrest further unilateral implementation of Turnaround Strategy initiatives, to reverse all already implemented changes and allow for proper consultation with MWASA as required by law and our Collective Bargaining Agreement,’ says Gumani.
According to the CWU spokesperson Vulture Ntuluki, they have established a restructuring team to investigate the implications of the new operational model and Turnaround Strategy for employees in the bargaining unit, and to formulate the union’s plan and way forward.
Ntuluki says the consultation process has been faced with various challenges, but the union has made it clear that the framework on engagement agreement has to be honoured and respected in full. However, they’re not worried about retrenchments at the moment.
“After CWU wrote a strong letter of objection to the intended retrenchments notice given by the SABC, the SABC withdrew that notice. According to us there will be no retrenchments in the SABC and this was confirmed by the SABC executives to CWU’s NEC. The SABC is currently attempting to re-instate the processes of offering voluntary early retirement packages in which they invited all three unions to the meeting on 29 July 2011. To our surprise the other unions were not present and CWU refused to be involved in that process,’ says Ntuluki.
He also claims that they have received “bundles of documents’ from the SABC which have not been explained in detail. “We are still waiting for more feedback and information from the SABC around the entire strategy and we will be following up with them, since we have committed to respond to their position on the Turnaround Strategy,’ says Ntuluki.
In addition to the unions’ unhappiness, industry representatives at the South African Screen Federation (SASFED) confirmed that they have also not been properly consulted on the proposed Turnaround Strategy.
“We met with the SABC at the beginning of the year and they said there would be regular engagement, but there hasn’t been. We’ve asked repeatedly for consultation and they’ve had every opportunity, but they’ve clearly closed the door on consultation,’ says SASFED vice chair Marc Schwinges. (Report by Linda Krige)
