Cape Town - Seven contracted lecturers at the College of Cape Town City Campus are fighting for the payment of their salaries which they have yet to receive since the start of the year.
The lecturers are part of the college’s Amended Senior Certificate programme offered by the college from October until June. They had a contract from October until December and had been paid for those months, but were not issued a new contract in the new year.
One of the affected lecturers, Trudy Rushin, said offer letters were sent at the end of April but were incorrectly dated and showed a 50% reduction in the hourly pay rate. The lecturers would not concede to this and embarked on a short strike. In the amended offer letter, the date had been changed but the rate with the massive reduction remained the same.
“We have been requesting a meeting with the head office, but they keep avoiding meeting with us,” Rushin said.
Speaking anonymously, another affected lecturer said: “We have tried the formal avenues of resolving the issue, but to no avail. We were scheduled to have a meeting with HR, but that hasn’t materialised yet.
“The issue is becoming more and more protracted. But in the end, we need money for our day-to-day living. Six months unpaid is just being insensitive and unprofessional to individuals who went all out to dispense their duties diligently.”
A National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) representative, who is also an affected lecturer, and did not want her name mentioned, said there was no communication with the affected parties regarding the reduction in salaries.
Last year, the hourly rate was R386.34. This year it was reduced to R152.49. A formal grievance complaint has been filed with the union.
Meetings scheduled for Monday and yesterday to discuss the matter were postponed to next month.
In response to queries, College CEO and principal Dr Manager Mhangarai Muswaba said he was unaware of the matter and would consult the HR unit.
The union representative said qualified lecturers without a teaching qualification, such as a PGCE (Postgraduate Certificate in Education), were told their salary would be cut this year.
“This was also not communicated. They just saw it on the new offer letters. So for us, this is the norm. You can’t cut someone’s salary by R6 000 and not communicate with them. You cannot change the basic conditions of their contract without having a sit-down and communicate with them. Have you pushed them to go and study? Have you said here’s a bursary? Our principal only offered the bursary for people to study after he cut their salaries.”