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Strike will cost teachers dear
08/05/2007 19:03 - (SA)
Pretoria - Teachers taking part in the planned public service strike would lose a combined income of R70m a day, said edeucation department director-general Duncan Hindle on Tuesday.
He said he hoped strike action could be averted, but said the department would enforce the no-work, no-pay principle on teachers who decided to strike.
"Principals will monitor the situation at schools regarding the attendance and non-attendance of teachers and report on that," he said.
Hindle was speaking at a briefing on work by the government's social cluster departments that include his own, the health, social services and housing departments.
He said the department's immediate concern was the physical safety of pupils and that it was also the responsibility of principals to ensure children were kept safe.
Illegal for essential services to strike
"A particular risk we face is at special-needs schools where we have children that need 24-hour attention. We have convinced the workers at those special schools to (keep on working)," he said.
The director general for health, Thamsanqa Dennis Mseleku, said the department was "fully prepared" to face the challenges of strike action.
He said the department wanted to hold talks with unions representing health workers to discuss the threat of strike action which would be illegal for health workers since it was an essential service.
"We must ensure that we look after the interests of patients especially in the emergency sections," he said.
"We want to urge health professionals and health workers to adhere to their code of conduct and to their commitments to put the patients first, whatever the situation is," he added.
Are demanding 12%
Public-sector unions have rejected the government's 6% wage increase offer and stood by their 12% demand.
Unions now are planning strike action to force the government to yield to their demands.
They said strike action would include workers from essential services such as health and police, even though the law barred them from striking.
- SAPA
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