Robben Island Museum workers have called off their strike after three weeks without their demands being met.
The strikers met on Wednesday to review the impact of the strike and whether to continue striking.
After a three-hour meeting at the Nelson Mandela Gateway the workers resolved to return to work.
Dede Ntsoelengoe, National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) chairperson at the museum, said the workers decided to suspend the strike and would be back at work from today: “We will pursue the issues raised with management in-house.”
Ntsoelengoe said the workers arrived at the decision after considering that the museum needed to make money in order to meet their demands. He added that a joint negotiating committee, composed of the union’s leadership and the management, would, from next week, discuss the workers’ demands with a view of reaching an amicable solution.
The workers downed tools on October 26 after negotiations reached a deadlock. Initially, they demanded a R3 500 salary increase across the board as well a complete shutdown of the museum between December 24 and January 2.
The management offered a 6 percent salary increase and refused to shut down the offices during its “peak season”.
The no work, no pay rule would apply, the management said.
For the lowest paid worker earning a gross salary of R78 000 a year, the 6 percent increase, which was implemented at the end of last month, worked out to R390.
Nehawu later demanded a R2 000 salary increase as well as “considerable leave” for some of its members during the festive season – but the management did not budge.
When contacted on Wednesday, the museum’s CEO Sibongiseni Mkhize said he was still waiting for a Nehawu letter confirming the strike had been called off.
Earlier this week Mkhize announced that despite the strike tours to the Island continued to operate efficiently.
“Since this past Saturday, a third tour has been added to the two that had been in operation since the beginning of the strike. Currently the 9am, 11am and 1pm tours are operating smoothly,” said Mkhize.
He said operations were running smoothly despite being without almost half of his 225-man staff.
He said the museum did not hire casuals nor interns. “It is through the commitment and dedication of our (non-striking) staff which is willing to do extra work to ensure that we are running fine.”
He conceded that questions might be raised about the museum’s large staff complement when it could operate “smoothly” without 44.5 percent of its workforce. - Cape Times