This Charter was presented on 6 October 2015 to the management of Wits and UJ.
The
hands of workers built the buildings, laid the roads and produced all
the goods in this society. The workers of today and the mothers and
fathers who were the workers of yesterday make society possible.
Universities were built using the labour of many people. They run each
day on the labour of many people. There are cleaners, teachers,
caterers, maintenance workers, technicians, administrative workers,
gardeners and more. Without them, there would be no university.
From 1999, universities across South Africa began the process of
outsourcing workers. The University of Cape Town was the first to
retrench and outsource workers, and run the university like a business.
Hundreds of workers were retrenched and workers’ wages and benefits were
cut. Their working conditions also deteriorated dramatically.
At
Wits University, for example, 613 workers were retrenched and only 250
re-employed by outsourced companies. Typically, cleaners’ wages dropped
from R2 227 per month to about R1 200. Workers lost their benefits and
moreover, as Wits employees, workers’ children were entitled to free
education, which was taken away through the process of outsourcing,
slamming shut the doors of learning and culture in the faces of workers’
families. Union membership and union organising among outsourced
workers was seriously weakened after workers were kicked out of the
public sector and divided according to companies.
Outsourced
workers enjoy few benefits: they have no medical aid, travel allowances,
housing and maternity benefits or pensions. Workers have been denied
their status as members of the university community. Workers have been
banned from meeting on campus and intimidated and disciplined for
attending meetings and rallies. At Wits, for example, workers were
forced to use separate entrances, toilet facilities and banned from
using open spaces. Workers are also subjected to racism and verbal
abuse.
Workers are forced to live an intolerable life of insecurity
and hardship. Many workers must leave home at 5am, walk and wait for
transport in the dark, risking their safety. Some workers surive on the
food thrown away in the canteen. Workers will never be able to send
their children to the university that they maintain. It is a life of
worrying if you will be able to feed and clothe and school your
children. It is a life of worrying what will happen when the company
contract ends with the university. What will happen to you and your
family if your lose your job?
Workers gave their sweat for ten
and twenty and thirty years – only to get chucked out through
retrenchments and outsourcing so that the university could save money.
Outsourcing continues to reproduce apartheid in universities today.
What could and should a public university look like?
Treating workers like human beings is not possible in a university run
like a capitalist business. The university must be a place where people
can work and learn and teach as human beings. The university is part of
the public sector. The public sector must be about what people need. The
public sector today can be like seeds of a different future – a future
where everything is collectively owned and organised under workers and
community control according to what people need.
Everyone whose labour contributes to the university should have:
• A living wage
• A secure job
• Decent, safe and healthy working conditions
• Democratic collective organisation so that they can speak and act together
• A safe place where they can leave children who need care
• Access to the education facilities
The labour of so many workers doing so many jobs is necessary so that
the university can run every day. The university must make sure it runs
with respect for the workers it needs.
We demand an end to all
outsourcing at public sector institutions and the direct employment of
everyone working without loss of jobs.
No workers should bear the costs and consequences of the university’s decision to outsource.
There Must be Job Security for All
• There must be permanent jobs for all workers.
• University management must take all steps necessary to ensure that
all workers who have lost their jobs as a result of the outsourcing of
“non-essential” services are reinstated.
• All workers jobs must be
secured if there is a change in contracted companies, or if there is a
change in the contract with an existing company. Workers who lost their
jobs when contracts changed or were terminated, must be reinstated.
•
The sporadic employment of casual labourers must be rendered
impermissible in terms of the rules of the university. No worker should
be discarded merely because their services are not immediately vital for
the smooth running of the university.
A Fair Wage is a Living Wage
• Everyone who works at the university, regardless of who employs them,
should have a living wage. In solidarity with the struggle of Marikana
workers, we support the demand for a living wage of R12,500.
• As a
first step, we demand a restoration of wage rates to equivalent levels
to those reached immediately prior to outsourcing, once inflation over
the last 15 years has been factored in.
• The university management
must take responsibility for setting the wage levels of workers, even
if workers are employed under outsourced companies.
All Workers Must Have Full Access to the University, including Benefits that Come with Working at a University
• All workers should receive the same benefits as academic staff. No
one is non-essential; no one deserves to be treated as if they are
expendable. These benefits include but are not limited to, pension,
medical, housing and leave benefits, as well as access to university
transport.
• The right to full access to the library, including the
ability to borrow books from the library. The right to full access to
computer facilities.
• The right to free tuition for any worker and
worker’s child studying at the university. Support for workers to
complete their schooling education must be provided.
• Child care facilities must be provided for all workers on campus.
• All workers must be given access to toilets, kitchens and tea rooms closest to where they work on campus.
• All workers must be given preference to job and other career
advancement opportunities. This process must be made transparent to
workers.
Freedom to Participate and Associate as Members of the University Community
• Workers are members of the university community.
• Workers have the right to gather, meet and organise on campus collectively at their PLACE of employment.
• The right of workers to associate with each other for the purposes of
defending and advancing their rights must receive institutional
protection at the university. This includes the right to and time off to
attend union and other organisational meetings.
• Workers’ organisations and representatives of their choice must be recognised by the university and other employers.
• The right to demonstrate, march, picket or strike on and near the
campus without threat or fear of disciplinary measures or dismissal must
be guaranteed. No one should be penalised if they refuse to cross a
picket line, or refuse to do the work of another worker who is on
strike.
• There must be democratic decision-making in the university
that involves the whole university community. Workers must be
represented on the highest decision-making bodies of the university.
Access to Information
• All information pertaining to the allocation of funds by the
university, as well as all other budgetary matters, must be made
accessible by management to workers.
• All information affecting
workers directly, such as the contracts signed between the university
and the companies, must be made fully accessible to any and all workers.
Dignified, Safe and Healthy Working Conditions for All
• The intrinsic dignity of all members of the university community must be respected.
• The university must prohibit any and all forms of unequal treatment against workers.
• All workers must be supplied with the necessary protective clothing
and training as well as adequate changing, ablution and rest facilities.
• Workers must have the right to refuse any unsafe and unhealthy work without fear of disciplinary action.
