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- This group has been created to inform KZN doctors on the current OSD dispute. It is a forum for us to pass information to all doctors from consultants to interns around the province and hopefully nationally. We will be posting information that has been relayed to us from KZN DOCTORS, as I have been elected the correspondent for DURBAN. The information relayed on this site will not be our personal opinions but rather purely information agreed upon during the DURBAN EMERGENCY MEETINGS, we will... (read more)
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SA DOCTORS UNITED (formerly kzn doctors)
JoinBasic Info
- Name:
- SA DOCTORS UNITED (formerly kzn doctors)
- Category:
- Business - Employment & Work
- Description:
- This group has been created to inform KZN doctors on the current OSD dispute. It is a forum for us to pass information to all doctors from consultants to interns around the province and hopefully nationally. We will be posting information that has been relayed to us from KZN DOCTORS, as I have been elected the correspondent for DURBAN. The information relayed on this site will not be our personal opinions but rather purely information agreed upon during the DURBAN EMERGENCY MEETINGS, we will... (read more)
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- ATTENTION All KZN colleagues who have been sent letters regarding participation in mass action. Please contact the SAMA Local branch with your letter. DO NOT PANIC!! DO NOT DIRECTLY RESPOND OR TAKE INDIVIDUAL ACTION ON YOUR OWN
Address: 80 Helen Joseph (Davenport) Road [green house opposite Davenport Centre]
Tel (031) 201-2087; Fax (031) 201-3685
28 September 2009
SAMA KZN Coastal Branch Members
Dear Member,
The SAMA KZN Branch Council is aware that a lot of members of the Association are still under threat from the authorities as a result of the recent strike action and its consequences.
Anyone who finds themselves in such a situation with the Provincial Government and / or HPCSA should immediately contact the Branch office together with all relevant documentation in your possession.
It is important that your response is timeous because the Branch is in the process of intervening on behalf of all members so affected.
Yours sincerely
Dr M Grootboom
President – SAMA KZN Coastal Branch
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Issue 1:
ADVICE TO SAMA ON ISSUES RELATED TO THE OSD AND THE GOVERNMENT OFFER TO SAMA MEMBERS
CHARLES NUPEN
26 JULY 2009
1. SAMA has requested advice on a number of issues relating to government’s offer to its members tabled at the Public Health and Social Development Sectoral Bargaining Council. The offer has been made pursuant to the implementation of the occupational specific dispensation (OSD) introduced by Resolution 1of 2007 in the Public Sector Co-ordinating Bargaining Council.
2. At issue is the occupation specific salary structure for Medical Officers, Medical Specialists, Dentists, Dental Specialists, Pharmacologists and Emergency Care Practitioners.
3. SAMA does not meet the 10000 member threshold for admission to membership of the PHSDSBC. It has enjoyed a presence in the negotiations over the OSD by virtue of a partnership agreement with DENOSA which has been admitted to membership.
4. The PHSDSBC Constitution provides that decisions of the council may be taken if supported by the employer on the one hand and by trade unions which hold more than half the trade unions’ voting weight, of the trade unions represented at the meeting at which the decision is made.
5. SAMA is unhappy about certain aspects of governments offer on the OSD.
6. It asks, given its limited powers within the PHSDBC, what alternative legal routes, if any, can be pursued, especially if other unions are reluctant to declare a dispute.
7. Should the trade unions in the council carrying 50%+ of the voting weight accept the government’s offer SAMA members will be bound by the decision. No alternative legal routes are open to SAMA in this regard.
8. If the circumstances as described in clause 7 obtain, no other effective legal steps are open to SAMA to challenge the outcome.
9. SAMA asks if there are any forms of action the SAMA and other trade unions in Council can embark upon in a bid to get government to inject more funds into the OSD, and the pros and cons of any route advised upon.
10. In the first instance SAMA must recognise that its powers to influence government are wholly bound up in its ability to persuade trade unions in council to back its cause such that a settlement is not secured over the top of SAMA as contemplated in clause 7 above. That being secured, then the options open to SAMA appear to be the following:
a. Persuade government to re-open negotiations on its current offer in order to improve it.
b. Accept those aspects of government’s proposal that find favour with your membership and secure from government a commitment to implement and to refer the balance into further negotiation or to arbitration. As advised verbally government would in all probability baulk at this as cherry picking, and if persuaded at all to go back to the negotiation table, would want to negotiate a comprehensive settlement.
c. Declare a dispute in council and refer the matter into the council dispute procedure. The procedure contemplates conciliation, and failing that, arbitration for workers in essential services. The key strategic consideration would be whether SAMA is confident it can persuade an arbitrator on the merits of its cause such as to persuade the arbitrator to make a binding determination better than the offer on the table. Of course in mutual interest disputes there is generally greater uncertainty as to an arbitrated outcome, and the process will at best take several weeks.
11. There appears little if anything that SAMA can do in the immediate to short term to challenge the limitations imposed by the current bargaining structures on its members. In the longer term it is open to SAMA to make the case for the statutory collective bargaining dispensation in the public sector to be reviewed and revised to allow a discreet bargain for certain categories of professional employees. Under the current dispensation numbers dominate, so other professional categories like teachers or nurses, with large numbers, may feel that the need for change is not as pressing as may be felt by the medical profession.
12. Clause 23(5) of the Bill of Rights in the South African Constitution provides the right to every trade union to engage in collective bargaining. This right is subject to the limitations clause (36), but in my view there is certainly an argument to be made that in setting the threshold at 10,000 the PHSDSBC constitution denies SAMA, with substantial membership within the medical profession in the public sector, the right to engage in collective bargaining. Because partnerships such as those contemplated in clause 7.2 of the PHSBC, are discretionary, they could not be said to confer a right upon a union which on its own does not meet the threshold. So a strategy directed towards negotiating an amendment to the PHSDSBC constitution to allow a lower threshold presents itself for consideration. Failing that there is the prospect of mounting a court challenge to assert the right conferred by clause 23(5) of the Bill of Rights.
*******************************************
Issue 2:
Sama KZN meeting to vote for new leadership:
email sent to SAMA
28/7/2009:
Today is now the 27th of June 2009, and we have had no feedback. As per the articles of Association (Section 17.3) A date for a general meeting must be set within 14 days from that day from which the request was received.
Hence, there are only two more days in which the branch council has to act. Failure to act in this time period will leave us with no option but to refer this matter to the SAMA head office including the chairperson and the secretary general. If the Branch Council fails to act accordingly, the members have the right to call our own special general meeting where we will take decisions that will be legally binding.
I hope this request finally receives the attention it deserves.
Dr Kalesh Seevnarain
MBChB (Natal) MBA
Senior Registrar
Department of Occupational and Environmental Health
University of Kwazulu Natal
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Issue 3:
From: rchetty@hotmail.co.uk
To: Sama
Subject: FW: statement of account
Date: Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:46:57 +0100
Every Kzn sama members requested legal advice during our protest.
There was full support for a sama lawyer to be sent down to assist us during the strike.
The request was taken by our Sama KZN branch president and he told us he would be getting a lawyer to speak to advise us asap (note that Sama had lawyers advising Gauteng the entire time), however two days later we were told that the lawyer was sick and could not make the journey.
During this critical time of our protest whilst Sama members were being intimidated and being thrown out their DQs, we needed urgent 24hrs advice.
We have a petition of over 800 registered SAMA members that want SAMA to pay for the advice and assitance that was given to us by Mr Moodley. (a private lawyer, that acted on our behalf)
Note that we did approach SAMA first to send us a lawyer, however we did not get any formal response.
We were read a legal opinion that was delivered by a doctor, he did not read the entire opnion out, but only to read certain information from the entire document
This did not constitute legal advice and when the 800 strong crowd wanted to ask questions we were told he was busy and he would not take questions, he duely walked out the lecture hall and left, we all know who that was.
I will be handed the petition in person during the SAMA KZN AGM MEETING.
Thank you
Dr R Chetty
From: Rinesh Chetty [mailto:rchetty@hotmail.co.uk]
Subject: RE: statement of account
I would like confirmation that Sama kzn has sent this invoice to the national office.
All sama members voted in the meeting yesterday that the invoice must be paid for by SAMA, we were told by the Sama KZN branch that they would be sending this invoice off asap, to the national office for payment.
There has also been a request from members that the lawyer who wrote the legal opinion be made available to members as there has been many queries with regards to the statement.
Thank you
Dr R Chetty
From: samadbn@csinternet.co.za
To: rchetty@hotmail.co.uk;
Subject: RE: statement of account
Date: Fri, 17 Jul 2009 07:55:27 +0200
Dear Dr Chetty,
Please note that your account has reached head office. I have confirmed this with the SG.
Yours sincerely
Fahima Khan
Adminstrative Secretary
Tel : 031 2012087
Fax : 031 2013685 / 086 645 0368
Email : samadbn@csinternet.co.za
Website: www.samedical.org