The University of South Africa (Unisa) has terminated the contracts of employment of five members of staff who were on precautionary suspension since 19 April 2022, for violations of the Unisa Ethics Code and Employee Disciplinary Code. The termination is effective immediately.
The reasons for the termination of these contracts of employment are multi-fold. They inter alia entail violating their terms of suspension, incitement of public violence, malicious damage to property, organising and leading the forceful disruption of Unisa graduation ceremonies between March and April 2022 and violation of the Court order.
Despite repeated advice and warnings by the university for the striking NEHAWU members to cease and desist from participating in an illegal and unprotected strike, they continued to lead and organise an unlawful strike by university employees aligned to NEHAWU, intimidate and harass the employees who are not in support of their unlawful conduct, blocked the university entrances, which actions have seen operations of the university, in particular the planned Autumn Graduations, brought to a halt and other employees unable to access some of our campuses to report for duty. The illegal strike is continuing to this day.
The Management of the university has a duty to protect the academic programme, protect and preserve the image and reputation of the university, as well as ensure that staff, students, and other stakeholders of the university can access its premises without hindrance and free from fear and intimidation. As a law-abiding institution, the option to opt out, undermine, avoid, or violate the rule of law does not exist.
Management equally continues to value the role that organised labour should play in the co-construction of a future Unisa; and its doors are always open for engagement with Organised Labour in an open, democratic and dignified manner. In fact, Management has made repeated advances to meet with the NEHAWU BOBs since the first disruption of the graduations on 15 March 2022, but these advances were rejected outrightly by NEHAWU.
Management urges all employees participating in the illegal and unprotected strike to cease and desist from doing so and report for duty with immediate effect. The university will apply a no-work-no pay rule for employees participating in the illegal and unprotected strike; and reserves its right to take disciplinary action against such employees, which may include dismissal if found guilty.
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Publish date: 2022-05-07 00:00:00.0