This week's blog was sparked by a social media post, a seminar, and an e-mail letter. The e-mail; an appeal addressed to the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) asking it to publish a weekly news letter setting out the different mandates of the Council, a Trade Union and a Professional Association. The Facebook post was a question. Should we as child and youth care professionals join a Trade Union? The Seminar was presented by Prof Emeritus Nick Smiar on child and youth care and social work ethics.
Lets start with the Facebook Trade Union query. The overriding response was "Yes". Evocative words gave reason - "victems, "suffering, dying profession". I agreed. Join the Trade Union that you trust will serve you the best as child and youth care workers.
Child and youth care workers are required by law to register with the SACSSP, encouraged to be a member of your professional association (NACCW), and encouraged to join a Trade Union. They each have different mandates and different ways of operating.
The urgent call for mobilisation is, without a doubt, precipitated by child and youth care labour relations experiences since last year and this year April until present. The issues have been spotlighted in my previous blogs. Here is a reminder. A six week"public servants" strike under the banner of a Trade Union that came to nothing, the so called "dry season"....no pay, no stipend. Then there is something new which I really do not understand.Workers in projects are saying that some were interviewed for employment. Some were employed and some not. Some are awaiting interviews. Suddenly they sit at home with no income and load of uncertainty. Some say they are working anyway and submitting M&E reports without pay.
The call is for action now.
Facebook post; Our situation is now that we must all be, not just a profession, but all united and mobilised.
State employees in residential facilities appear to some extent organised. They have forums that report to the Department. Frustrated, they can join a Trade Union and establish a bargaining Council which would include the State employer. It's all set out very neatly in the Labour Relations Act in Section 27.
Quote:1. One or more registered Trade Unions and one or more employers associations may establish a Bargaining Council for a sector or an area. 2.(summarised) If the area or sector is one in which the State is an employer, state may be a party to the Bargaining Council.
Bargaining Councils purpose is to: conclude collective agreement, to enforce collective agreements,to prevent and resolve labour disputes, promote education and training schemes, develop for submission, policy and legislation that affect the sector.
Exactly what the sector needs. Trade Unions, it is said, are necessary for bargaining for workers rights and benefits and to regulate industrial relations. Trade Unions can make demands and call for a strike. But child and youth care workers in South Africa constantly remind each other in the social media that a prolonged national strike yielded nothing for them in the end. Because child and youth care work is categorised as an essential service there appeared to be some confusion during that period. So what does it mean when it comes to strike action?
Strictly speaking, employees in a job categorised as an essential service cannot strike. But this is in direct contradiction to the South Africa Constitutional right to strike. So, terms and conditions have been established which, if properly applied, allows strike action. Through collective bargaining with the employer and the strike declared legitimate, a strike may proceed if a minimum service agreement (MSA) is struck.This will include agreement as to the minimum numbers needed to provide a minimum level of service.
The professional association does "work toward" the "material circumstances" of the professionals. Its objects determine its modus operandi. It does not demand, bargain or call for collective action. Key "doing words" are "liase", "disseminate information" "support". "encourage efforts to eradicate factors". This does not make the association toothless. It uses the voice of its members to do all of this. It has, in terms of its constitutional mandate to advocate but go about things differently from a Trade Union.
The SACSSP has one object within its Act that mandates it as a voice directly with State. It can "advise" the Minister. Its primary concern is Registration, Regulating Education Qualifications and Regulating Professional Conduct.....upholding Professional Ethics.
Just as there is a policy guide for social workers, so there is a SACSSP document entitled "Policy Guidelines for the Course of Conduct for Child and Youth Care Workers".(Ed. Lodge B.J, Nadasen V, 2013). It is under revision and due for distribution this year. Section D2 deals with Labour Action. It sets out that child and youth care workers "shall be guided the profession's, values, ethical principles and ethical standards"
These are some dont's :
Damage to property, threats of intimidation, harm in any manner to children young people and families, violence, neglect or abandonment of duty, (This is where the MSA come in), bringing the profession into disrepute, defacing property, defamatory words or action.
There other forms of action and mobilisation. protest marches, work to rule, go slows. Each of these has been tried at some time or another.
Homework shows that there is NO existing employer's association in the non-governmental sector just for child and youth care workers which could form a bargaining council in terms of the Labour Relations Act
There is another concern. Community-based child and youth care workers across the country are disparate and have no consolidated voice. There is an organisational structure called a Lobby Group, (also known as an Advocacy Group and sometimes, a Pressure Group, or an Interest Group). Any individual or group can form a Lobby Group or Pressure Group.It must have a constitution and regulations to which its members subscribe.
There was a social media comment which expressed surprise that child and youth care workers have not taken their unfair labour experiences to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA). The social media impression is that child and youth care workers are fearful of as an individual, taking the state head-on That the stakes are loaded from the start and fear rightly or wrongly, further negative repercussions or even retaliation.!!
I am nor really in favour of a proliferation of organisations. Other than Trade Unions however, the others are not mandated to demand publically confront or enter into public protestation or civil disobedience. I favour the idea that there the NGO sector who employ child and youth care workers form an exclusive co-operative to tackle issues on behalf of their workers nationally.
Trade Union membership is encouraged.
A lobby Group, however sounds enticing ....even sexy
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