Battle over teacher pay hike deal

Johannesburg - Department of Basic Education director-general Bobby Soobrayan unwittingly signed a labour agreement deal with teacher unions that would have cost the department R740 million over and above the amount agreed upon.

The labour agreement, signed in 2011, was in relation to salary adjustments for matric exam markers.

When the department realised the blunder, it pulled out of the deal, saying it was “unimplementable”.

The SA Democratic Teachers Union (Sadtu), in turn, called for the resignation of Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and Soobrayan.

The union said that if something had been wrong with the deal, then Soobrayan, who had signed on the department’s behalf, had to be held accountable.

The dispute landed at the Labour Court, and on the first day of the hearing on Monday, the court heard that aspects of the agreement signed off by Soobrayan had been different to the ones the department had initially agreed to.

Department legal representative advocate Gerrit Pretorius SC said the department official who had been involved in the negotiations and who was drawing up the agreement had to take leave when her father fell ill just as the deal was about to be signed.

Pretorius said that when Soobrayan signed the deal with the unions, he was under the impression that it was the one his colleague had given the nod to.

Pretorius said the agreement was “clearly wrong” and, therefore, had to be cancelled.

If the agreement had been implemented, it would have widened income disparities between the various personnel involved in the marking and moderation of matric exam papers.

Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke disagreed and told the court that the agreement would, in fact, narrow the income gap.

He said a deal was signed with the department in 2008 to increase by 100 percent the remuneration of examiners, invigilators, moderators and translators.

The 2011 agreement was intended to adjust the salaries of exam markers - 90 percent of whom are teachers - in the same manner.

“The intention of the agreement was to get a 100 percent increase, and increases thereafter would be in accordance (with) the CPI (consumer price index).

“This (the markers’ salaries) is (a) pittance… it’s not what they (the department) were supposed to pay teachers. Markers had been getting no increase for a number of years and we had to address that,” he said.

The hearing continues.

nontobeko.mtshali@inl.co.za

The Star

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