NEGOTIATIONS BEGIN TO INTRODUCE A NEW REMUNERATION DISPENSATION FOR FET COLLEGE LECTURERS

 

DATE: 20 August 2008

 

In contributing towards government’s broader objectives of skills development (as envisaged in ASGISA and JIPSA), the Further Education and Training Colleges Act, 16 of 2006 (FETC Act) was promulgated. In the process of transforming and restructuring the current FETC sector, it is imperative that this Act must be contextualised against the backdrop of the skills revolution in South Africa.

 

The FETC Act provides the legislative framework to strengthen responsiveness, coordination and quality, and lays the basis for South Africa to develop a skills profile that signals a greater correspondence between economic development and human resources. The FETC Act further has as its objective, the establishment of a coordinated further education and training system and it makes provision for the employment and transfer of staff of the public FET colleges from the “old employer” (the Department of Education) to the “new employer” (the public FET Colleges).

 

The ELRC has been the driving force in assisting its parties with the implementation of the FETC Act, prior and post the promulgation of this legislation. To this end, parties to Council have concluded two collective agreements;

 

·         One on the “Implementation of Further Education and Training Colleges Act, 16 of 2006”- Collective Agreement No. 4 of 2007 which paved the way for the facilitation of transfer of staff currently employed in terms of the Employment of Educators Act of 1998 to the College Councils as the new employer; and

 

·         A further agreement on the transfer of employees from the department of education to individual FET Colleges - Collective Agreement No. 5 of 2007.

 

However currently, the FETC sector is faced with the major challenge of attracting and retaining qualified lecturers. In particular those of scarce and specialised subjects and fields, e.g. Engineering, boiler-making, etc. It must be noted that in the next 5 years this sector is expected to double the number of students and consequently the number of lecturers.

 

While new dispensations for other sectors in the public service were being developed and introduced lecturers were excluded from this due to the transitional matters having had to be addressed. One of the key obstacles was the finalisation of a collective agreement on the establishment of the special bargaining unit at the ELRC.

 

However in order to ensure that we have a responsive and flexible FET College sector if is imperative that an appropriate remuneration and reward system be developed and implemented for this sector, as a matter of urgency while the agreement on the bargaining unit is being finalised.

 

In responding to the above challenges, the State as the old employer, the representatives of the College Employers Association as well as the Combined Trade Unions, “CTU-SAOU” and “CTU-SADTU”) have begun exploratory discussions to craft a new College dispensation. 

 

To this end a FETC-Task Team has been established to, amongst others:

 

·         Develop a framework of a new salary dispensation for lecturers;

·         Develop a new career path for lecturers;

·         Develop measures for improvement of lecturer qualifications through training and development; and

·         Develop new performance management and reward system for lecturers.

 

This framework will not only address remuneration structures for lecturers, but also focus on the retention of these vital lecturing skills in the sector.

 

The parties to the ELRC, including the employer’s organisation in the sector, have today committed themselves to developing and introducing this new dispensation.

 

The voice of the lecturers is very important in this process.

 

The process of consultation has begun.

 

 

END

Issued by: The General Secretary, ELRC, Mr M Govender

 

For further enquires please call the Media Manager on 012-663 0451 or email media.man@elrc.co.za or contact the General Secretary on 012-663 0432 or email gen.sec@elrc.co.za