Taking COSATU Today Forward, 22 July 2016
Norman Mampane
Taking COSATU Today Forward...
COSATU marches against outsourcing, retrenchment and labour brokers in Gauteng CBD!
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Mao
Our side of the story
Friday 22 July 2016
‘Unity and Cohesion of COSATU to Advance the National Democratic Revolution’
COSATU Cares!
Contents
Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
Ø SADTU to honour its late Deputy General Secretary
Ø Presentation by COSATU Deputy General Secretary, Comrade Solly Phetoe to the National Child Labour Day on Friday, 22 July 2016
South Africa
Ø Passing of ANC MP Raesibe Nyalungu
Ø DENOSA supports the Call to Action for Greater Investment in Nursing globally to achieve goal 90-90-90
International-Workers’ Solidarity!
Ø ENEL Global Works Council meets to develop GFA renewal
Ø Education International speaks on behalf of workers and trade unions at UN high-level forum
Workers’ Parliament!-Back to Basics…
SADTU to honour its late Deputy General Secretary
Jonavon Rustin, SADTU Western Cape Secretary 21 July 2016
SADTU in the Western Cape will honour the Union's late Deputy General Secretary Don Pasquallie by renaming its provincial offices after him followed by a memorial lecture.
Cde Pasqualle joined SADTU in 1991 in Elsies River and rose within the ranks to become Western Cape Provincial Secretary and later, the National Deputy General Secretary in 2006. He died in a horrific car accident, together with his brother, on 27 January, 2008.
A revolutionary educationist, Cde Pasquallie served SADTU with distinction. He led the Union's National Bargaining team and was committed to improving service delivery to members through better training and communication.
SADTU's Deputy President Mabutho Cele will deliver the memorial lecture. The provincial leadership from the Tripartite Alliance made up of COSATU's Tony Ehrenreich, SACP's Anthony Diederich and ANC's Jerimia Thuynsma will also address the occasion.
The event will take place as follows:
The renaming of Offices:
Venue: 33 Tallent Street, Parow, Cape Town
Date: Friday, 22 July 2016-07-21
Time: 5pm
The Memorial Lecture:
Venue: Parow Civic Centre
Time: 6pm
The media are welcome to attend and cover the event.
ISSUED BY SADTU SECRETARIAT
- See more at: http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=11800#sthash.UX6H3MFF.dpuf
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Presentation by COSATU Deputy General Secretary, Comrade Solly Phetoe to the National Child Labour Day on Friday, 22 July 2016
Solly Phetoe, COSATU Deputy General Secretary, 22 July 2016
Introduction:
The Congress of South African Trade Unions once again confirms the Federations commitment to eliminate the worst forms of Child Labour and to continue awareness raising by commemorating National Child Labour Day annually.
South Africa made a significant advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor, since it became signatory to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Roadmap in May 2010 for the prevention, reduction and eventual elimination of Child Labour.
The Government passed amendments to the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, which extended protection to children working in the informal sector and increased the penalty for child labor violations from 3 to 6 years imprisonment.
The Government also drafted regulations to implement the 2013 Prevention and Combating of Trafficking in Persons Act. The Department of Home Affairs published new regulations for the 2002 Immigration Act that includes new documentation requirements intended to prevent the illegal movement of children.
The Department of Social Development also implemented a food relief program for households with vulnerable and orphaned children, as well as child-headed households. Studies also indicate that the Government's Child Support Grant and the Old Age Pension may help reduce child labor.
However, children in South Africa are engaged in child labor, including agriculture and domestic work.
Government social programs to address child labor do not match the scope of the problem and barriers to education access remain.
The Government also does not make enforcement data publicly available.
Forms of Child Labour in South Africa:
· Used in illicit activities such as drug trafficking, home burglaries, gang-related activity, and the production and selling of liquor.
· Commercial sexual exploitation, sometimes as a result of human trafficking, there is Forced labor in domestic work, agriculture, food service, street vending, and begging each sometimes as a result of human trafficking.
Key Challenges faced by Children engaged in Child Labour in South Africa:
· Children in South Africa are trafficked from rural to urban areas, including to Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, and Johannesburg. Girls are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic work and boys are trafficked for work in agriculture, food service, begging, and street vending.
· Reports indicate that orphaned children in South Africa are especially vulnerable to human trafficking. The Government reports that girls are more likely than boys to be involved in child labor. However, the Government does not collect comprehensive data on the number of children engaged in the worst forms of child labor.
· Although birth certificates are required to qualify for services, including education, more than 20 percent of babies are not registered by their first birthday.
· The Department of Home Affairs adopted regulations to ensure compliance with the 2010 amendments to the Births and Deaths Registration Act which went into effect in March 2014; the amendments require that children are registered within 30 days of birth.
· Although access to free education is mandated by law, school fees vary depending on the municipality and region.
· The Government implements a no-fee school program that covers the poorest primary schools. According to the Government, 81 percent of schools are "no fee.
· The Government also provides some fee waivers to children receiving government grants. The Government provides books and stationery, but all families must pay for uniforms and other school-related expenses, which may affect children's access to education.
· Lack of access to government assistance and services, e.g. identity documents, birth certificates, social grants, pensions, health services etc are still a challenge.
· Lack of access to schools and scholar transport is a challenge in many areas.
Conclusion:
COSATU welcomes the platform offered every year by Department of Labour and the International Labour Organisation to engage on Child Labour with a focus on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.
However engagement on its own is not enough and will not make a difference to the experiences and human rights violations faced on the ground and taking place in the workplace and homes by the Vulnerable Children in South Africa.
COSATU would like to know what has been the outcome of the cases of killings and Violations of Children’s Rights reported during many previous such engagements, investigations, reports and recommendations.
How have these helped to improve the plight of the Children?
How have weaknesses in the laws been fed to the departments to correct?
What government programmes have been initiated as a result?
How have families, schools and employers been engaged to correct these labour and human rights violations?
What has been done to improve the plight of these Children, in particular on farms and rural areas?
What services have been offered or provided to the surviving Children and their families?
I Thank you!
South Africa
Passing of ANC MP Raesibe Nyalungu
The Office of the ANC Chief Whip,22 July 2016
The Office of the ANC Chief Whip has learned with shock and sadness the passing of our Member of Parliament, Cde Raesibe Eunice Nyalungu, yesterday, 21 July 2016, after a long illness.
At the time of her passing, she was serving as a member of the parliamentary portfolio committee on appropriations and represented her constituency of Hazyview in the National Assembly. Cde Nyalungu joined Parliament in 2009, and had served in various committees such as agriculture forestry & fisheries as well as Scopa.
Born on 10 October 1966 in Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga, Cde Nyalungu was part of a generation of courageous activists and dedicated community servants who rejected and rose against the inhumane and evil system of apartheid. She served the movement in various capacities over many years, including recently as the ANC Women’s League Executive Committee Member of the Bohlabela Region in her home province. At the time of her passing, she was serving as ANC Secretary of Ward 14 George Mokoena branch and was also the Chairperson of the ANC Women’s League in the same branch. She was an unassuming, dedicated and disciplined MP who undertook any parliamentary task with great energy, enthusiasm and excellence. She was selfless and committed revolutionary, and no task was too big or too menial for her.
She was deeply passionate about issues affecting women and unflinchingly advanced the agenda of women in all the political responsibilities she held. We will forever remain indebted to her for the great contribution she made both inside and outside of Parliament as part of the ANC's endeavour to qualitatively improve the quality of live of all South Africans.
The Office of the ANC Chief Whip extends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of Cde Nyalungu.
ISSUED BY THE OFFICE OF THE ANC CHIEF WHIP
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DENOSA supports the Call to Action for Greater Investment in Nursing globally to achieve goal 90-90-90
Simon Hlungwani, DENOSA President, 21 July 2016
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) joins hands with the global nursing groups in the Call to Action at the 21st International AIDS Conference in Durban, for Greater Investment in Nursing to achieve 90-90-90 objectives, and calls on all community to demand hiring of nurses in facilities in preparation for this vision.
The aim of goal 90-90-90 is to reach at least 90% of people with HIV to know their status, and ensure that at least 90% of them are enrolled into the Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) programme, and that 90% of all people on the ART programme have their viral load suppressed by year 2020.
This call is for every country, state/province, and every district to promote health access, equity and rights for all patients. Organisations behind the Call to Action include DENOSA, ICN, ANAC, ICAP, IAS, ANA, and UNAIDS.
The Call to Action demands adequate staffing, payment of nurses and equipping of all health facilities where communities are served, and it also demands adequate supply of medication, as well as inclusion of nurses in decision-making about health issues in their countries, provinces, and districts.
DENOSA says for the 90-90-90 to be achieved, more nurses must be hired and their well-being in the workplace must be looked at and prioritized. In South Africa, the new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on Test-and-Treat will be implemented in September this year. As DENOSA we are happy with this pro-activeness from our government. However, our concern is that this ambitious plan may come to expose the extent of severe shortage of nurses in the country as this plan will be wholly driven by nurses, who are few and far between in facilities and most of whom carry out the work of two or three other nurses who are not hired. Queues will become longer if more nurses are not hired, and this may result in tensions between community members and nurses who are the face of the system.
DENOSA is calling on community members to assist nurses and all health workers in demanding the hiring of nurses and procurement of medication and equipment in their facilities ahead of the implementation of this plan.
Currently the country has 3.4 million people on the Anti-retroviral Treatment (ART) programme, which is the largest programme in the world due to NIMART. Expanding the programme will result in longer life for many patients who are infected by the HIV pandemic in the country.
We call for equitable representation of nurses on policy guidelines and other decision making bodies; and Government to remove economic barriers to nurse-led care in order to guarantee access to healthcare as a human right by addressing social determinants of health.
The shortage of nurses, as well as the low production of student nurses in the few public colleges, has proven be too little for the country and yet HR Planning has been so poor that some of the produced nurses are not absorbed and placed at institutions where their service is greatly needed.
DENOSA calls for reopening of previously closed nursing colleges, equipment of nursing colleges and nurse educators. We also call for establishment of staffing norms countrywide, so that we could start measure the shortage against the norms.
As nurses of South Africa, we demand that the nurses who work overtime because of the shortage must be paid adequately and not have to wait for months to get their money. Safety of nurses in the workplace should be assured at all times.
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA)
- See more at: http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=11801#sthash.yucQVXRP.dpuf
International
ENEL Global Works Council meets to develop GFA renewal
IndustriALL, 22 July 2016
The ENEL Global Works Council met in Rome in July 2016 to raise issues from ENEL sites around the world, and develop the renewal of the global framework agreement which will expire.
The Global Works Council of the Italian energy multinational ENEL held its annual meeting in Rome in July 2016, with representatives of management and unions from ENEL operations around the world. One of the items on the agenda was the renewal of the (GFA). The GFA was signed in June of 2013 between ENEL, IndustriALL Global Union and Public Services International (PSI). The agreement was valid for three years, and both global unions seek further improvement in GFA implementation through the renewal process.
The renewal of the European Works Council Agreement between the company and the European Federations, IndustriAll Europe and EPSU, was also on the agenda, and management and European worker representatives negotiated and agreed a new one.
Over the course of the three day meeting, union representatives raised issues that need to be resolved by the GFA to be renewed, many of them experienced by affiliates in Latin America. This includes some cases over agreed outputs at an operation in Chile, and a case in Peru where the union is seeking compensation for the family of a worker who lost his life at work three years ago. In Colombia, maintenance work has been subcontracted, and in Argentina, white collar workers are excluded from collective bargaining.
Diana Junquera Curiel, IndustriALL energy director, said:
“It is very important to have this agreement, which we believe is the best mechanism for ensuring fairness across all ENEL workplaces. Now it is time to renew and make further steps.”
“The renewed agreement should certainly be more effective, and we need to ensure complete implementation everywhere in the world that ENEL operates.”
ENEL management has committed to move forward the renewal process as soon as possible.
Ahead of the meeting in Rome, the ENEL Latin American regional union network met in Buenos Aires in April 2016, to prepare. This was the second meeting of the union network, after a previous meeting in Fortaleza, Brazil, in 2014. It was attended by affiliates to IndustriALL Global Union and PSI from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Panama and Peru.
The Latin American meeting set out to develop a mechanism to ensure compliance with the GFA and to establish a system of rotation for participating in meetings so that all Latin America affiliates are represented. The meeting sought to establish a system for the network, with continuous communication between unions and workers for the effective implementation of the Agreement.
During the meeting the affiliates spoke about issues in each country and chose Sintraelecol from Colombia and APSEE from Argentina as representatives to the Global Works Council.
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Education International speaks on behalf of workers and trade unions at UN high-level forum
Education International, 20 July 2016
Meeting in New York City, the High-Level Political Forum is convening to review the progress on the Sustainable Development Goals, and EI is there to share the voice of the trade union movement.
The High-level Political Forum reviews progress on meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and takes place at the UN in NYC in July every year. It aims to “provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations on the 2030 Agenda’s implementation and follow-up; keep track of progress of the SDGs; spur coherent policies informed by evidence, science and country experiences; as well as address new and emerging issues.”
Education International (EI)’s Antonia Wulff spoke on behalf of the Workers and Trade Unions in the session on multi-stakeholder engagement looking specifically at the role of different stakeholders. The Workers and Trade Unions statement raised concerns about the assaults on trade unions and the decent work agenda seen across the globe as well as the lack of public financing to ensure human rights and decent work for all.
Wulff proposed “courageously and coherently” broadening the scope of social dialogue as a way to overcome tensions between the economic and social pillars of sustainable development. She also expressed concern that SDG 10 (reducing inequalities) did not have a “mother agency” or ministry to ensure its implementation.
National Voluntary Reviews
At the centre of the discussions are the so-called National Voluntary reviews. This is a voluntary process where countries can sign up to review and present progress made. Twenty-two countries signed up during the first year alone – learn more here.
With less than a year having passed since the adoption of the SDGs, the reviews are challenging to carryout. Countries have focused on analysing their progress to date, and on integrating the SDG targets in national plans and strategies. Many of the 22 countries have put some mechanism into place to include civil society in these processes, with Norway, Finland and Germany including representatives of civil society as part of their official presentations. In the case of Germany, it was Ansgar Klinger, of the teachers’ union GEW who presented a joint statement on behalf of NGOs, trade unions and private sector, calling for structured and binding stakeholder participation in implementation of the SDGs.
Most countries have highlighted education as an area where good progress already has been made, with countries like Finland highlighting free tuition at all levels of the education system and free school lunches for all as key success factors.
Strengthening and broadening social dialogue was highlighted as both a means and an end of the Agenda 2030, and a best practice for democratic and participatory decision-making. It is also a powerful tool for resolving the inherent tensions between the social and economic pillars of the SDGs.
Finally, the goal on reducing inequality within and between countries was highlighted as a priority, especially given that there is no obvious agency or ministry in charge of implementation.
Announcements
Enabling COSATU Members to Tweet Effectively
NB: @cosatu2015 has been revamped and now it’s @COSATU2015_
Introduction to COSATU Official Twitter Accounts
Ø @COSATU2015_
Official tweets on current affairs, ideological disposition and for a Question & Answer platform
Ø @COSATU TODAY @_cosatu
Seconds- COSATU roving official tweets on events, quotable sound-bites on speeches/interviews, newsflash etc.
How to Register a COSATU Member Twitter Account
Ø Go Google and type twitter/sign up
Ø Versions of name/surname must be completed
Ø Choose a username/password and don’t forget them
Ø Update your profile; picture, bio
o Picture size should be 700k
o Bio-short narrative who you are
Ø Examples of Bio; Africa's largest Federation Official tweets, the home of the toiling classes across the world, with more than 2million membership...Amandla! Johannesburg, South Africa · http://www.cosatu.org.za
Ø Choose who to follow and type @COSATU2015_ and @COSATU TODAY @_cosatu
Ø And you’re skinning in the game through COSATU tweets
Communicating messages that matter is like artwork
Social Media generation is here and is unavoidable
‘Let’s skin in the game of COSATU Tweets’
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Norman Mampane (Shopsteward Editor)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
110 Jorissen Cnr Simmonds Street
Braamfontein
2017
P.O.Box 1019
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 339-4911 Direct 010 219-1348
E-Mail: mam...@cosatu.org.za
