The Citizen reports that outsourcing has fallen at the University of South Africa (Unisa) after 10 months of deliberations. Unisa's Multi-stakeholder Task Team (MSTT) has announced that the university would appoint 910 new members of staff in previously outsourced areas, including cleaning, security, gardening and waste-removal. The MSTT was established by a resolution of the Unisa Council at a special meeting in December, with a mandate to insource identified services in response to the nationwide call, largely by students, for academic institutions to end outsourcing.
Sakhi Simelane, chair of the Unisa Council, said the agreement bore testimony to the "commitment, unwavering determination and resolution of all parties involved" to find amicable solutions to difficult problems. Simelane added that this was done through courageous and open-minded discussion, as well as facing-up to the deep-seated systemic challenges confronting Unisa.
Following discussion on the submission by the MSTT, the executive committee of the Unisa Council resolved the following:
- To approve the insourcing of services from 1 December. This would affect the security, cleaning, waste removal, recycling, gardening and estate services at Unisa centres;
- The stakeholders agreed insourcing would be capped at the current outsourced contract value of R112 million and be based on a shared model that applied a 70/30 principle, with 70% allocated to salaries and 30% to operational costs, administered by reputable service providers;
- The stakeholders agreed 910 of the 1,413 affected employees would benefit from insourcing, based on a fair selection process that took into account South African citizenship, a matric qualification, Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority verification for security personnel, and at least a year's service at Unisa, as well as no criminal record;
- All affected contracts for insourced employment be terminated and be completed as soon as possible, and that the procurement of new service providers for the shared-services model commence immediately;
- The same benefits that had been extended to the cleaning staff also be given to new insourced workers;
- The stakeholders agreed that an ex gratia salary payment of R3,500 for three months (totalling R10,500) be made to all members of staff who were not selected for insourced employment; and
- The Exco of Council approved and directed that a minimum wage for vulnerable workers in the sectors not yet identified be determined and, when implemented, be backdated to 1 March.
Based on a report by Virginia Keppler on page 8 of The Citizen of 25 October 2016
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