Union warns of border agency strike

Source: Business Day, 31/08/2016

THE largest public sector union in SA has threatened a nationwide
strike should the Department of Home Affairs continue to push for the
creation of a border management agency, despite the department
maintaining that the working conditions of employees would be in the
ambit of the public service.


The National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) on
Tuesday hit out at the alleged failure by the department to provide a
"sound rationale" for the creation of a standalone border management
agency whose officers would perform all law enforcement functions at
all ports of entry in the country.


"There is absolutely no reason why the integrated and co-ordinated
management of the ports of entry and enforcement of border law cannot
be established within the public service," Nehawu general secretary
Bereng Soke said.


The Border Management Authority Bill has been several years in the
making but has prompted concerns of overlapping functions between Home
Affairs, the Police Ministry and the Treasury.


Earlier in August Parliament gave the three departments until
September 13 to consult with their political principals — Malusi
Gigaba, Nathi Nhleko and Pravin Gordhan — following which they are
expected to make final submissions on the bill.


Treasury officials submitted to Parliament that decentralisation of
the function of customs and tax could put the system at risk, while
the DA questioned why a new authority was required rather than the
strengthening of existing ones.


Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba`s spokesman, Mayihlome Tshwete,
said on Tuesday that engagement with organised labour had gone on for
several months and would continue amid a desire for the bill to be
implemented as soon as possible.


The department had sought to address most of the concerns from
organised labour but could not accede to a demand that a new
department be established, rather than a public entity.


That it was an agency did not imply privatisation, and the department
had said it would be subject to the laws and regulations governing
labour in the public sector.


The issue of the agency serving as an essential service — which would
inhibit strikes — would be put to the Essential Services Commission,
he said.


"We want to proceed as cautiously as possible but also as quickly as
possible," he said.