- Nehawu will hold a protest outside the Union Buildings on Monday.
- It wants the president to address them and resolve their issues, contained in a memorandum submitted to the Presidency earlier this month.
- Their demands relate to health worker safety and salary increases for frontline workers.
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union's (Nehawu) NEC is set to protest outside the Union Buildings on Monday to get President Cyril Ramaphosa to respond "adequately and positively" to their demands, detailed in a memorandum submitted earlier this month.
The union's demands related to health workers who were "getting infected [by Covid-19] on a daily basis" and were "denied their salary increases and bonuses as public servants and risk allowance or motivational incentives for frontline workers", the union's spokesperson Khaya Xaba said in a statement on Sunday.
"A total of 32 429 health workers had contracted the virus while 257 lost their lives as of September 11, 2020 as per the statistics provided by the National Department of Health.
"In this regard, we will not fold our arms while we are losing our members while government continues to insult workers by refusing to implement Resolution 1 of 2018, especially Clause 3.3," Xaba said.
Nehawu said it had written to the Office of the President on 11 September explaining that their ultimatum had expired and their intention to withdraw their labour.
"As Nehawu, we believe that our demands contained in the memorandum are urgent, reasonable and they deal with issues of life and death," he added, saying similar protests would take place at all premiers' offices across the country.
Xaba said they will not leave the Union Buildings or premiers' offices until the president addressed them and their issues were resolved.
"These protests will run concurrently with the ongoing lunch hour demonstrations and mobilisation for the complete withdrawal of our labour power in all sectors we organise if our demands are not acceded to by the president," Xaba said.
Did you know you can comment on this article? Subscribe to News24 and add your voice to the conversation.