ELRC 202324 Annual Report

EDUCATION LABOUR RELATIONS COUNCIL | 2023/24 ANNUAL REPORT

L EDUCATION LABOUR RELATIONS COUNCI

As part of implementing the recommendations of the Colloquium, Council convened a Core Training Team (CTT) Task Team meeting on 23 January 2023 to draft the management plan for the QMS training of Provincial Training Teams (PTTs) which was to be implemented and completed by 31 March 2024. The Free State had indicated that they would implement their own in-house QMS training programme in response to the resolutions that emanated from the 2023 provincial QMS Colloquium. The CTT QMS training of PTTs was rolled out to the other eight provinces, with the last province completed on 13 March 2024. The Basic Education Sector Workshop on Cost Containment Measures was held on 20 and 21 September 2023. The purpose of the workshop was to afford the employer and employee Parties an opportunity to put their heads together to discuss how the sector navigates through the most turbulent times it is going through, owing to the fiscal constraints that the government finds itself in. The budget cuts experienced for this financial year, in-year budget cuts, have a serious impact on the functioning of the sector. The National Treasury issued a letter dated 31 August 2023, indicating what needs to be done by National Departments and by implication signalling to Provincial Treasuries to issue the same letter to Provincial Education Departments. National Treasury also issued guidelines and those guidelines point in one direction: the sector needs to cut costs and there is a drastic reduction in the baseline allocation which impacts profoundly on the way the sector functions.

The Council concluded the following collective agreements:

• Collective Agreement No. 1 of 2023: Amendment of Part C of the ELRC Constitution: Dispute Resolution Procedures (Basic Education And TVET) as Ratified by the Registrar of Labour Relations • Collective Agreement No. 2 of 2023: Vote Weights for the Trade Unions that are Parties to Council

Council ratified the following provincial collective agreements:

• Northern Cape Collective Agreement No. 1 of 2023: Recruitment and Placement Procedures for Educators at Educational Institutions. • Western Cape Collective Agreement No. 1 of 2023: Collective Agreement 1 of 2023 on the recruitment and appointment procedures for Educators at Education Institutions. Council convened its Annual General Meeting on 31 August 2023, where Dr L Bono was elected as the Independent Chairperson of Council and Mr M Cele (SADTU); Mr GM Mabuza (CTU-ATU); Mr J M Mogale (Employer) and Mr M G Rafapa (Employer) were elected as Deputy Chairpersons of Council. Four Special TVET Bargaining meetings (14 April 2023, 9 June 2023, 4 August 2023 and 17 August 2023) were held. A TVET PCAM Workshop was held on 11 October 2023 on a hybrid platform where the draft PCAM document was discussed and the Essential Services Committee (CCMA) delivered a presentation on “Security Services in Education Institutions” in which the Employer was encouraged to draft a Minimum Service Agreement for security services. The Labour Management Partnership launches in the provinces were concluded successfully. The purpose of the provincial launches was to cascade the National Labour Management launch to all provinces as part of the advocacy programmes to popularise the ELRC national programme and start implementation in the pilot provinces. The ELRC will pilot the programme in four provinces, two coastal and two inland provinces during the first phase: Coastal (KwaZulu Natal and Western Cape) and inland (Limpopo and Mpumalanga). This does not prohibit other provinces from starting a programme under the guidance of the ELRC. Mr J Rustin, Programme Director, was invited to the STANCO meetings to present the rollout plan and to establish Provincial Leadership Teams (PLT) and then the District Teams. Virtual facilitator sessions were held with 25 facilitators from the four pilot provinces, namely KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape, and the training was facilitated by Professor Saul Rubinstein and Charles Heckscher from Rutgers University (USA). The purpose of the training was to train master trainers to empower the South African team to facilitate workshops in the country to foster labour management partnerships in all provinces. The Council selected master trainers from the pilot provinces to attend physical training at Rutgers University from 14-22 March 2024.

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