Residents who suffered because of the impasse between Pikitup and the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), can finally heave a sigh of relief.
Pikitup released a media statement on 31 July stating that “Pikitup has now reached an agreement with Samwu on the organisation’s terms, in dealing with the suspensions of the workers and can confirm that the agreement has been signed.
The union, in a statement issued with permission by the workers, stated that the workers pleaded an admission of guilt and accepted various levels of warnings based on previous misdemeanours on file. Samwu leadership have requested that on the back of this agreement, Pikitup will allow the 1 791 workers to return to work as of 31 July 2013.”
According to Dineo Mphoreng of Ogilvy and Mather who handles Pikitup’s public relations account, operations in the city will normalise owing to the return of suspended employees. She did ask the public though to bear in mind that there are backlog challenges in certain areas but added that the organisation “is striving to get all operations back to normal by 5 July if not sooner.
“As management we are happy that key stakeholders such as our employees and the majority union Samwu have realised that we are all acting in the best interests of the organisation and that measures introduced are mechanisms aimed at making this a business we can all be proud of,” said Pikitup MD, Amanda Nair.
