Condemnation of limitation of fundamental worker’s rights

The SAOU says in a media release that the proposed limitation of the right of educators to strike implies that Education would have to be declared an essential service. Any such declaration would violate currently held, local and international definitions of what an essential service is.

In terms of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), essential services refer to those careers that will result in life or death if labour is withdrawn. Clearly Education does not fit within that definition and any attempt to force it to fit would constitute an indefensible and inexplicable attack on the labour rights of educators as enshrined in the Bill of Rights as contemplated in the SA Constitution.

In no country where a free democracy and respect for fundamental human rights exist, is Education regarded as an essential service. Education International, a body to which the SAOU is affiliated, and which represents 32 million educators, will not support such a development.

The SAOU agrees that education is in crisis but can never agree to a political decision that will impact negatively on fundamental rights as contemplated in the Bill of Rights. If this development is allowed to continue uncontested, it will be the thin edge of the wedge that will inevitably lead to the corrosion of other fundamental rights. The Union cannot credit that a government which claims to espouse the cause of democracy and human rights would even consider an approach characteristic of totalitarianism and the limitation of a fundamental right.

The SAOU is fully aware that no right is absolute and the converse of every right is the concomitant responsibility that goes with it. Notably, recent past experience has shown that those career groups that are presently defined as essential services participated in strike action. Clearly, the problem does not lie with a definition but rather at a completely different level. It may be suggested that the problem of the so-called essential workers lay with a lack of work ethic, a lack of professionalism and a lack of dedication.

The SAOU has a proud record of exercising its rights with extreme responsibility and does not require a political party to prescribe to it regarding responsible action.

The SAOU will, therefore, not only actively reject any such proposal but will take whatever formal steps necessary to resist the actions allegedly being contemplated by the South African government.