Johannesburg – Walter Sisulu University management and trade unions have agreed on a wage package in terms of which workers will get a 5% increase backdated to January, the university said on Tuesday.

“The annual salary increase for 2013 will be an across-the-board increase on basic salary of 5%,” university spokesperson Angela Church said in a statement.

“The increase will be backdated to 1 January 2013, and paid with the salary run of September 2013, together with back pay,” she said in a statement.

This follows weeks of protests which eventually led to the university being closed. Classes resumed on Tuesday with a revised academic calendar.

Church said all the parties were committed to implementing the revised academic calendar.

Employees would be reimbursed for the resultant additional working hours with the payment on 12 September of the equivalent of an August 2013 salary cheque, less the usual deductions.

“The parties acknowledge that the no work, no pay principle during the industrial action applies. However, it is agreed that employees will, subject to the terms of this agreement, be entitled to trade-off leave,” she said.

This was aimed at limiting the consequences of the effect of the no work, no pay principle.

She said contract workers would be considered for permanent posts once the restructuring process had been concluded, subject to a match-and-place process.

The agreement would also result in workers being granted a once-off opportunity to migrate to a preferred retirement fund.

“It is agreed that an audit firm will be appointed to conduct a further audit on the process of migration to the new university salary scales.

“Should any error be found with the initial process, it will be corrected retrospectively to 1 January 2009.”

– SAPA