Pretoria - The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the South African Local Government Association (Salga) are hopeful that after today's meeting they will reach an agreement that will end the five-day municipal workers strike.
"We are not happy with the current situation and we hope that we will reach an agreement to end the strike," Salga spokesperson, Melisa Kentane told BuaNews on Friday.
Samwu's Deputy General Secretary, Walter Theledi, also expressed confidence that an amicable agreement will be reached in today's meeting.
"We hope that the matter will be finalised and get things back to normality," he said.
The two parties had been meeting since the beginning of the week with the hope of ending the strike.
Samwu maintains that if no agreement is reached, the strike will continue.
Allegations have also surfaced that Samwu will be held accountable for damages that occurred during strike action in KwaZulu-Natal. Theledi said although no official report or complaints had been received, their lawyers were looking into the matter.
"The matter will also be discussed at our National Executive meeting which will be taking place soon," he said.
Striking workers are calling on Salga to implement a uniform job grading system and to ban the use of external lawyers during disciplinary procedures.
