The Ekurhuleni metro has terminated with immediate effect the employment of 40 waste collection workers who engaged in gross misconduct by constantly rendering waste collection services, mainly in Kempton Park, unworkable.
According to Ekurhuleni spokesperson Themba Gadebe, the metro’s action is consistent with labour relations legislation, which provides for summary dismissal in circumstances that call for dispensing with the pre-dismissal procedures.
It is alleged that on February 1 the workers went on the rampage, harassing, assaulting and intimidating a crew that was doing round collections.
In that incident, a truck driver and an operator were doused with petrol but managed to escape uninjured before their truck was set alight.
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Other incidents of lawlessness in which the dismissed employees are implicated include:
• Using municipal trucks to prevent vehicles that are used for litter pickers and transfer station employees from exiting the depot, thus disrupting service delivery. The perpetrators were not scheduled to perform functions on February 1, 2020, and their presence at the depot can only be construed to have been to disrupt the operations of the employer.
• Four trucks belonging to service providers were turned away and they could not render the service to the public.
• On January 28, municipal employees left their workstations to intimidate and harass private contractors who were busy with refuse removal rounds in another area.
Gadebe said the metro views this conduct as constituting exceptional circumstances as envisaged in Schedule 8 (4), sub-section 4 of the Labour Relations Act, whereby pre-dismissal procedures may be dispensed with and the appalling conduct of these employees as rendering their continued employment intolerable.
“The conduct of these employees is endangering the lives and safety of people in the municipality as well as service providers, and there is a high propensity for the continuation of damages to the property of the municipality and service providers should these persons continue in the service of the municipality.
