Cape Town - A dispute lodged against the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) concerning the scrapping of 2 400 teacher posts will be set down for conciliation.
This, as the Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) confirmed they received the dispute submitted by the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) this week.
“The matter will now be set down for conciliation, where the appointed commissioner will try to resolve the matter between the parties.
“If not resolved, the matter will then be set down for arbitration, where the commissioner will decide on the matter.
“The award will be made available once the matter has been finalised with all the details of the proceedings and the outcome,” said ELRC general-secretary, Cindy Foca.
Sadtu lodged the dispute after it said the WCED’s consultation with unions over the teacher posts cuts were “meaningless and insufficient”.
While the WCED said it noted the dispute, it said it still hoped the union would join the fight for teachers by urging the National Treasury to fully fund the posts.
The department said it was doing everything it could to fight for teachers, but it received only 64% of the cost of the nationally negotiated wage agreement, leaving the province to fund the remaining 36%, resulting in a budget shortfall of R3.8 billion.
The WCED said it widely encouraged the conversion of contract teacher appointments to permanent appointments.
“We in fact sped up this process, processing and confirming the conversion of 5 000 contract appointments into permanent appointments in the period January – August 2024.
“A further 443 contract appointments are currently being converted to permanent,” the department’s spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said.
The WCED said they were left in the position as a result of the decision by the national government to not fully fund the 2023 nationally negotiated public sector wage agreement.
The National Treasury, however, said the percentage split of any provincial education budget, including the Western Cape, had nothing to do with wage negotiations.
Rather, this was to do with how the department was structured.
“Wage negotiations for 2025/26 will only commence in September 2024. There is no agreed percentage at the moment.
“For 2024/25, all public servants in National and Provincial departments received 4.7%.”
It said all sectors were impacted by fiscal consolidation budget adjustments and were required to absorb these changes within their existing baselines.
“The education sector’s budget for the years 2024/25, 2025/26, and 2026/27 is R316.5 billion, R328.8 billion, and R343.6 billion, respectively.
“The fiscal consolidation measures that typically involve reducing baseline budgets were offset by additional allocations aimed at addressing shortfalls in compensation of employees.
“The adjustments in the education sector’s budget result in baseline additions of R9.6 billion in 2024/25 and R9.2 billion in 2025/26.
Cape Argus