THE University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) assured employees on Tuesday that as many as possible would keep theirjobs when new contracts were signed for cleaning services. Hundreds of support staff employed by private contractors working at the university were set to protest on campus on Wednesday over working conditions and threats of retrenchment. The labour unrest is likely to keep vice-chancellor Adam Habib busy in his first week on the job. Prof Habib said at the weekend Wits was probably the most diverse university on the continent in terms of demography, programmes and ideas, "which makes it a very exciting and challenging place to lead". Wits outsourced noncore functionssuch as cleaning and transport in 2001 as part of a restructuring process seeking greater efficiency. The decision, which sawmany Wits staff become employees of outsourced companies, has led to widespreadunhappiness over working conditions. Coupled with this is a decision earlier this year by Wits to "rethink" how it contracts externally for on-campus services. On Tuesday, the Wits Workers Solidarity Committee said workerson Monday were "herded" into an urgent meeting with their employers and told "to queue up at the university’s services department to be interviewed for the jobs they already have". The committee — made up of staff andstudents — criticised Wits’s handling of the matter, saying employees were handed termination notices, leading to"panic". Wits is appointing two new cleaning service providers, havingshort-listed a number. It said part of the selection decision included whether the new service providerswould employ all of the employeesof existing providers. It had instructed the companies not to"use the interview process to exclude workers on the grounds ofage, union membership or union activity, as such discriminatory practices fall foul of the law and the constitution". Wits said the university senate would meet on Wednesday to discuss the demand that no interviews of current employees be required. Complaints by staff that they wereharassed and victimised had led to Wits commissioning an independent report on working conditions in March last year. The workers’ committee said ill-treatment had included staff being forced to use separate entrances, forbidden from using the toilets they cleaned, banned from meeting on campus, and dismissals for "organising other workers against these apartheid-era practices". The investigation’s report, released this year, concluded that Wits had not violated any provisions of the Employment Equity Act, but flagged poor working conditions. Wits management has promised to work with service providers to redress issues.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 07:03:18 +0000
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