Pretoria, Tuesday 17 October 2017: The South African Police Service reaffirms its position that the 10111 SAPU-affiliated employees strike is unprotected. This follows the signing of a collective agreement in September at the Safety and Security Sectoral Bargaining Council (SSSBC) to which both POPCRU as the majority union in the SSSBC, as well as the South African Police Service were signatories.
Although SAPU was not a signatory to the agreement, the said agreement is enforceable and it renders the strike action unprotected.
Following the South African Police Service’s management decision to take disciplinary steps against 10111 striking workers who did not return to work by the 29 September 2017 deadline, SAPU took the matter to court. This matter will be heard on Wednesday, 18 October 2017 in the Labour Court.
While the majority of workers have returned to work, some workers have not, with some engaging in Monday’s march to the Union Buildings, to protest against management’s decision to take action against the affected employees.
The South African Police Service will follow due processes and present its matter before the labour court on Wednesday where it will argue that the on-going strike is unprotected. Therefore, the employees participating in the strike are making themselves guilty of misconduct.
The matter is still sub judice, therefore as a Service, we will not comment further while we await the outcome of the ruling.
We will continue to engage with the unions to find common grounds in resolving the matter relating to the wage dispute, and urge labour to encourage its members to allow this matter to be processed.
