Thank you very much, hon Chairperson. Collective bargaining processes provide for a mechanism to develop a plan to manage the involvement of essential services workers in industrial action. The plan is referred to as a minimum service dispensation. It is meant to ensure that, whereas workers in general have a right to strike, essential services workers have to have their rights balanced with the nature of their work.
We identified categories of workers that are considered essential services workers and gazetted such accordingly. This plan, the minimum service dispensation, has not yet been agreed upon at the collective bargaining council level and we are due to finalise this soon.
Yesterday, at around two o'clock, 81% of unions participating in the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council, PSCBC, signed a resolution together with us as the government and employer to address this matter. We agreed that we needed to elevate the consideration of this matter to party principals. All that means is that when it comes to the issue of dealing with essential services and having to find a dispensation that will be workable so that there is no disruption of such services, party principals have to lead the process.
This is a breakthrough, because all that it means is that instead of dealing with this matter as an ordinary matter of negotiations, we will actually be dealing with it at a much higher level. I am leading that process and we are looking at concluding this matter by December this year. Thank you very much.