Candes Keating
1 April 2008
Cape Town — The Western Cape's 30 000 teachers are to receive a 4 percent salary increase, say unions, which will sign a wage agreement with the national Education Department this week.
The agreement comes more than six months after Education Minister Naledi Pandor released the Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD), a document outlining salary increases for teachers.
On Monday, the deputy president of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, Thobile Ntola, said: "We are expected to meet on Wednesday (tomorrow) and sign the agreement."
The 4 percent salary increase is earmarked for implementation next month and will be backdated to January.
But Ntola said the negotiation process around the OSD document is still far from over.
The document also outlines new salary structures, pay progression, recognition of experience increases, principal salary packages, as well as a system that will link salary increases to pupil performance.
Unions have so far not reached agreement with the department on any of these critical issues that will alter conditions of service for all teachers.
"The union took the approach that we should rather implement what can be agreed on now, and then finalise the OSD system," Ntola said.
Cape Professional Teachers' Association spokesperson Faez Tassiem said the agreement would be signed tomorrow in the Education Labour Relations Council in Centurion, and would outline negotiation dates for the other aspects of the document that unions are unhappy with.
Tassiem said there was "no rush" to settle on additional aspects of the OSD document, as these were earmarked for implementation only in 2010.
However, salary increases had been earmarked for the start of the school year, he said.
Meanwhile, president of the National Professional Teachers' Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa), Dave Balt, welcomed the agreement that will be signed.
"This agreement is unique in that it allows for the immediate implementation of part of the new dispensation while entrenching the rights of parties to engage one another in further negotiations on specific aspects of the OSD proposals."
Balt said some movement had already been made on the other aspects of the OSD document, but that much more work had to be done before unions signed another agreement.
"Naptosa is cautiously optimistic that agreement will be reached on all those outstanding aspects of OSD which will be subjected to further refinement and negotiation."
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