25/11/2025
NEHAWU SIGNS SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT WITH THE NATIONAL DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH FOR THE PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT OF COMMUNITY HEALTHCARE WORKERS
Tuesday November 25, 2025
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU], the fighting and militant union committed to transform the public healthcare system, has been engaged in an unremitting struggle for the permanent employment of Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs).
The union wants to register to its members and the general public that today, Tuesday 25th November 2025, it has signed and concluded an implementation agreement with the National Department of Health for the permanent employment of the CHWs in line with the Labour Court Judgement of January 2025.
The implementation agreement follows a protracted process of implementing the historic Labour Court Judgement which directed that the CHWs are ‘deemed to be of an indefinite duration’ meaning that Community Health Workers must be appointed permanently.
The agreement represents a major achievement in the fight and struggle for the permanent employment of the CHWs and it advances the course of the creation of decent jobs. Furthermore, the agreement is a turning-point against the unabated exploitation of the CHWs and the workers in general especially those that we, together with our federation COSATU, have identified as vulnerable workers or the precariat. But it is also a progressive gain for the broader struggle of the working class as our agreement shall facilitate the strengthening of the primary healthcare system as a foundational platform for the realisation of Universal Health Coverage through the National Health Insurance (NHI).
As NEHAWU, we have always premised our struggle for the permanent employment of the CHWs with the view that the work of this cadre is of critical importance in the context of the role of the Ward Based Primary Health Care Outreach Teams that are a key component of the re-engineering of the primary healthcare services towards building capacity for the full implementation of the NHI. This development must be welcomed as it is a key part of the current Phase 1 in the implementation of the necessary restructuring related to the NHI Act of 2024.
The CHWs have emerged in black communities as selfless and dedicated volunteers over many decades ago amidst the pervasive lack of access to healthcare, especially palliative care, under Apartheid. Thus, the CHWs have contributed significantly in improving the health status of our people, including through their pioneering health promotion campaigns. This contingent of healthcare workers has on many occasions proven to be the backbone of the healthcare system and the important role they play in promoting health and wellbeing of our people.
The signing of the agreement by both parties will see the department permanently employing all eligible 27 000 CHWs at Public Service Salary Level 2 effective from 01 September 2025. Furthermore, parties agreed that the implementation date of 01 September 2025 shall be limited to a payment of 3 months net remuneration, while the commencement date for pensionable salaries of the CHWs shall start from 01 December 2025.
Equally, the department agreed to provide an interim stipend increase of R1000 to the residual 16,687 CHWs for the financial year 2025/26 until their permanent appointment. This adjustment will start from 01 September 2025 and remain in place until the permanent appointments are finalized for those eligible.
Parties further agreed to finalise the implementation of the permanent appointment of the remaining 16 687 CHWs and the determination and implementation of a Token of Appreciation for CHWs who have reached pensionable age by no later than 31 January 2026.
Key to the achievement of this implementation agreement, fundamentally, is saving and guarantying job security of about 43 687 CHWs but not limited to with clear time-lines and benefits as opposed to the historic form of employment of this cohort of employees - the Community Healthcare Workers which were subjected to continuous fixed term contracts with salaries that have no bearing to their pensions and completely with no benefits over a long period of time. Indeed, this is a victory to be celebrated as families of CHWs will go to bed with assurance of their jobs being guaranteed.
Indeed, the signing of the agreement must be linked with a significant improvement to the conditions of services of CHWs that have been subjected overtime to as well as addressing the vast shortages of personnel in the healthcare system, as underscored in the 2030 Human Resource for Health Strategy where it states that “the prevailing Human Resource for Health challenges are a result of continued underinvestment, limited strategic planning and management capacity, and gaps in governance, stewardship, accountability, coordination and implementation of key health workforce policy interventions for the delivery of quality services”.
As NEHAWU, we reiterate our perspective that the permanent employment of the CHWs is an investment in the healthcare system and will address the challenges encountering our healthcare system. The CHWs play a critical role in improving the quality of our healthcare services. This is going to contribute positively towards strengthening our healthcare system to ensure that it provides access to quality health services for all in line with the principles of universal health coverage.
The union will tirelessly continue uninterrupted to fight for its members, workers and the working class in general in bettering their working and living conditions. As such, this gigantic, red and transformative will be convening membership meetings to report-back on the latest developments blow by blow and explain the practical meaning of this settlement in the lives of community healthcare workers whose respect and dignity have taken away by employers and the system.
In this regard, we call on all CHWs to attend all these important meetings scheduled by the national union for further information regarding their fully employment without being distracted by deliberate misinformation meant to confuse them for cheap and narrow interest for membership gains which have nothing to do with their fight for full employment.
END
Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat.
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