News

Barclays / ABSA head of employee relations Thomas Mashaba has described the Pan-African partnership between the bank and UNI affiliates as "a best practise in Africa" that has led to the signing of a pledge with SASBO – the finance union in South Africa.

Addressing a Pan-Africa meeting of finance unions in Johannesburg recently, Mr. Mashaba highlighted the following as achievements of the Forum:

• Greater dialogue between management and unions

• More than a recognition agreement – signing of the Pledge with SASBO the finance union

• Forging new relationships in National Bank of Commerce, Tanzania

• Opportunities to learn from other unions - Ghana

• Finding solutions through dialogue in Zimbabwe

The Barclays representative also welcomed the call for a Global Framework Agreement with UNI saying his bank was ready to engage with UNI and was interested to see what form the framework agreement would take.

Gizelle Conradie, the SASBO assistant general secretary responsible for ABSA described the Pledge as a tailor-made agreement that "is unique to ABSA and SASBO."

She said the Pledge was reached after mutual negotiations between the two parties and captures the essence of good governance, social responsibility, importance of human capital, commitment to transparency and consultation, and a balance between business economic success and employees work-life-balance.

Barclays Forum Union Coordinator George Kawenda said the Forum has opened a platform for trade union cooperation and sharing ideas with Barclays Africa. He said there was need to form a working committee for the forum to spearhead the work of the forum.

And Head of UNI Finance Oliver Roethig praised the social dialogue in Barclays Africa as "quite advanced". He said UNI was interested to see "how we can move to a global a framework agreement with Barclays" which has already signed a partnership Agreement with unions across Africa as well as a pledge with SASBO.

He said UNI was already engaged in talks over Barclays' takeover bid for ABN-Amro adding that, "when companies have a business strategy for the entire region, it's important that we engage them on their human resource strategies at regional level as well."

The meeting urged Barclays to clarify the role of managers' associations in the forum and to form a working group for the forum.