Taking COSATU Today Forward, 3 June 2026
Norman Mampane
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COSATU TODAY COSATU Call Center Contacts: 010 002 2590 #COSATU is participating at the #ILO International Labour Conference underway in Geneva #ILC2026 #ClassWar #Cosatu40 #SACTU70 #ClassStruggle “Build Working Class Unity for Economic Liberation towards Socialism” #Back2Basics #JoinCOSATUNow #ClassConsciousness |
Taking COSATU Today Forward
‘Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense’-Maoo
Our side of the story
3 June 2026
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Contents
- Workers Parliament: Back to Basics!
- Media Statement: Implementation of Commuted Overtime at Taylor Bequest Hospital
- South Africa
- Media Alert: COSATU will present its submission on the Budget's Appropriation Bill to Parliament on 03 June 2026
- International-Workers’ Solidarity!
- From Alabama to Argentina: workers’ rights in freefall
Workers’ Parliament-Back2Basics #ClassWar
Media
Statement: Implementation of Commuted Overtime at Taylor Bequest Hospital
Dr. Cedric Sihlangu, SAMATU General Secretary, 02 June 2026
The South African Medical Association Trade Union (SAMATU) in the Eastern Cape wishes to formally express its grave concern regarding the ongoing implementation of commuted overtime arrangements at Taylor Bequest Hospital – Tlokoeng. The manner in which the
current system is being administered constitutes a deviation from both the provisions of the 2016 National Commuted Overtime Policy and the Commuted Overtime Contracts signed between the employer and the affected medical practitioners.
SAMATU has received reports that medical doctors appointed on Commuted Overtime (COT) contracts are being required to perform duties outside the scope of their contractual obligations, resulting in the systematic undercounting of overtime hours worked. This
practice has the effect of extracting additional labour from doctors without the corresponding remuneration contemplated by their contracts and the applicable policy framework.
The affected medical practitioners have signed Commuted Overtime contracts placing them in Group 3, which provides for a first on-call service package requiring an onsite commitment of between 64 and 80 hours per month. Notwithstanding these contractual provisions,
doctors are routinely being required to render services that fall within the operational requirements of both Group 2 (offsite on-call) and Group 1 arrangements, in addition to fulfilling their Group 3 obligations.
This effectively creates a hybrid overtime model that is neither recognised by the 2016 National Commuted Overtime Policy nor reflected in the contracts concluded between the employer and the affected employees. The consequence is that doctors are required
to perform substantially more work than that contemplated by their contracted overtime category while being remunerated only for the Group 3 package. SAMATU considers this arrangement to be exploitative, unfair and inconsistent with the principles of lawful
labour administration.
The undercounting of overtime hours and the allocation of duties beyond the contracted overtime category amount to a unilateral alteration of working conditions and remuneration structures. Such conduct undermines collective bargaining processes and imposes
additional workload obligations on medical practitioners without consultation or agreement with organised labour.
SAMATU further notes with concern reports that directives relating to the implementation of commuted overtime within the district have been issued under the influence of the so called Technical Expert. We wish to place on record that any interpretation or implementation
of the Commuted Overtime Policy must be undertaken by duly authorised employer representatives acting within their delegated authority and in accordance with national policy directives.
The National Department of Health has previously communicated to provinces that no deviations from the 2016 National Commuted Overtime Policy should be implemented pending the conclusion of the Human Resources for Health policy review processes currently being
undertaken through the Ministerial Advisory Committee structures. Any local arrangements that materially alter the categorisation of overtime, the calculation of hours, or the remuneration framework without proper authority and consultation are therefore highly
questionable and expose the employer to significant labour relations and legal risks.
SAMATU further notes that membership of a technical advisory structure does not confer executive authority to issue instructions to District Managers, Clinical Managers or hospital management regarding the implementation of employment contracts or overtime
policies. The role of an advisory committee is, by its nature, limited to making recommendations to the relevant executive authority, which remains responsible for considering such recommendations and making lawful administrative decisions.
In light of the above, SAMATU calls upon the Clinical Management structures of Joe Gqabi District to urgently review the current overtime arrangements at Taylor Bequest Hospital, ensure strict compliance with the 2016 National Commuted Overtime Policy and the
signed COT contracts, and cease any practices that result in the undercounting of overtime hours or the imposition of duties beyond the scope of the contracted overtime category without appropriate consultation, agreement and remuneration.
SAMATU reserves all rights available to its members, including the pursuit of collective bargaining, labour dispute resolution and any other legal remedies necessary to protect the contractual and statutory rights of affected medical practitioners.
ENDS.
Issued by: SAMATU Eastern Cape
Enquiries:
Bokang Motlhaga
Corporate Affairs Manager
069 586 8430
South Africa #ClassSolidarity
Media Alert: COSATU will present its submission on the Budget's Appropriation Bill to Parliament on 03 June 2026
Matthew Parks, COSATU Parliamentary Coordinator, 02 June 2026
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will present its submission on the Appropriation Bill (2026/27 Budget allocations to departments and state-owned enterprises) to Parliament’s Standing Committee: Appropriations from 09:00 Wednesday, 03 June (M46, Marks Building, Parliament).
Issued by COSATU
International-Solidarity
From Alabama to Argentina: workers’ rights in freefall
1 June, 2026
The 2026 ITUC Global Rights Index makes for sobering reading. Workers' rights have deteriorated for the fourth consecutive year. Europe and the Americas have both recorded their worst average ratings since the Index began in 2014. And for the first time, the United States has been placed on the watchlist, rated 4, meaning systematic violations of rights.
“The crisis for workers’ rights is no longer confined to the margins, it is now at the heart of democracies. Workers and their unions are fighting back. The struggle for workers’ rights is the fight for democracy itself,”
says Atle Høie, IndustriALL general secretary.
Three out of four countries deny workers the right to organize. Half of all countries arrested or detained workers for exercising their union rights. Violent attacks on workers rose by six per cent. Civil liberties violations, arrests, persecution and killing of trade union leaders, increased in 50 per cent of countries.
The findings reflect what members of IndustriALL affilaites experience. Union busting is explicitly identified as a tactic in the index, including in Estonia, the Netherlands, Poland, Serbia and Spain. In the United States, Mercedes-Benz spent more than U$600,000 on specialist anti-union firms at its Alabama plant while publicly claiming to respect workers’ rights. The US watchlist placement confirms that case is not an exception. It is part of a systemic pattern.
IndustriALL affiliates on the frontline
Argentina’s rating has collapsed from 3 to 5 in just two years, one of the steepest declines recorded. The country now appears on the ten worst countries list for the first time. IndustriALL affiliate the Unión Obrera Metalúrgica (UOMRA) is facing a judicial intervention to remove its democratically elected leadership, in direct violation of ILO Convention 87. IndustriALL has written to the UOMRA in solidarity and called on the Argentine authorities to respect union autonomy.
Other findings include:
Fifty per cent of countries arrested or detained workers for exercising their union rights, including in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Indonesia and Albania.
Violent attacks on workers increased by 6 per cent, including in India, Palestine, Ukraine and South Africa. Israeli forces raided the offices of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions in Nablus.
The ten worst countries for workers in 2026 are Argentina, Belarus, Ecuador, Egypt, Eswatini, Myanmar, Nigeria, Panama, Tunisia and Türkiye. Argentina and Panama are new entries on the list.
Digital surveillance is increasingly being used to monitor and suppress organising activity.
Governments are sidelining unions, consulting them less before introducing or amending labour laws.
Says Atle Høie:
“Behind every one of these numbers is a worker who was arrested, a union leader who was threatened, a workplace where people were too afraid to organize. This is happening in countries that call themselves democracies. IndustriALL will not stand by while our affiliates and their members are criminalized for doing what every worker has the right to do.”
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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 line: 010 219-1348