What military trade union Sandu (SA National Defence Union) described as a win for Works Formation artisans successfully claiming against stopped technical allowances is, according to the Department of Defence (DoD), only applicable to the 16 who went the legal route.
Earlier this month, the Pretoria-headquartered military labour organisation took up cudgels on behalf of 16 uniform-wearing artisans in their effort to have the technical allowances, stopped by “a policy change”, reinstated. The Pretoria High Court found in favour of the artisans ordering, according to Sandu, all deprived of the technical allowance be placed in posts and receive back pay with effect from 1 April last year. The application, affecting about 900 personnel in the nine provincial works units and other Works Formation structures, Sandu said at the time of the 26 November court hearing, was not opposed by the DoD.
This week Sandu informed its members the DoD “decided to comply only with the court order, limiting payments to the 16 individuals”.
The decision, according to National Secretary Pikkie Greeff, leaves other [Sandu] members without their rightful allowance. He urged those left in the cold – as it were – by the DoD Legal Services Division “to act now, contact Sandu so we can take action to ensure that everyone’s allowances are reinstated, not just the 16 applicants”.
