The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) has called for a nationwide socio-economic strike to commence on the 7th of October 2024.
On 21 August 2017, COSATU submitted to NEDLAC a Section 77(1)(b) notice on the Economic Crisis in South Africa. On 07 November 2017 the Standing Committee agreed that COSATU’s demands could not be resolved and therefore deemed the section 77(1)(b) Notice as having been considered. This means that any protest action arising from this notice is protected.
In terms of the Notice, COSATU demanded among others that retrenchments to maximize profits must stop. However, the respondents failed to provide a response to this demand. Since then, COSATU alleges that the number of retrenchments increased at alarming rates accompanied by weak economic growth as well as rising costs of living.
COSATU is calling all workers to support a socio-economic protest action by engaging in various forms of protest.
The forms of protest action and actions in contemplation of the strike will involve:
- A National Day of Protest on 7 October 2024 – this will take the form of marches and pickets across the country and in all major cities and towns.
- 2-hour pickets from 12h00 to 14h00 in the build-up to the national march and pickets as of 16 September 2024.
The specific activities above will take place during working hours. The socio-economic strike will commence at 00.00 and end at 23.59 on 7 October 2024. Employers must accept that shift workers will be away for the duration of one whole shift, and it will be the shift that has the majority of hours on the day in question.
Following the socio-economic strike on 7 October 2024, the Federation will assess the programme of action and decide on the way forward. The Federation reserves the right to extend the programme of action should it be necessary
What is Section 77? | Nedlac
- The intention of Section 77 of the LRA is to get parties to talk in the hope that disputes of a socio-economic nature can be resolved through social partner engagement.
- To this end, parties are discouraged from using Section 77 and Nedlac as a rubber stamp to get permission to strike.
- Once the engagements have deadlocked, the Standing Committee makes a ruling that further engagements will serve no benefit to the parties.
- The Standing Committee will, based on this decision, issue a Sec 77 (1)(c) notice to the applicants.
- Should the applicants decide to engage in protest action, they must give a 14-day notice in the form of a Section 77 (1)(d) notice which advises Nedlac of the date of the protest.
- This protest is then considered protected, and no employer may institute disciplinary action against any worker who chooses to join the action.
The rule of no work no pay applies to workers who are taking the day off to join the protest action.
Read the full notice here.
For more information or assistance with the topic mentioned above, please contact us: Get in touch.
