City regrading process moves ahead

ETHEKWINI Mayor James Nxumalo has set up a task team made up of senior councillors and the city administration to ensure that the staff regrading process is expedited.

Members of the task team include chairperson of the Health, Safety and Social Services Committee, Councillor Zandile Gumede, chairperson of the Governance and Human Resources Committee, Councillor Nondumiso Cele and City Manager, Sibusiso Sithole.

The issue of regrading was again brought to the fore on 23 March after a group of VIP Protection Officers and members from the eThekwini Security Management Unit entered the Executive Committee (EXCO) boardroom and asked that their grievances be heard although it was not on the agenda.

The first time the VIP Protection Officers raised the matter was in February and emanating from that, Nxumalo tasked relevant City officials to investigate the delay in the regrading processes.

Nxumalo told the disgruntled group that the process to engage officials is underway and Council would look into the matter when recommendations are made.

He condemned the manner in which they had chosen to raise their concerns saying it showed “ill-discipline.”

“I am very concerned about the way the group is handling the matter. I would understand if they approached us for a meeting to raise concerns. We appreciate the work they do but their actions are setting a bad precedent and showing other departments that they too can disrupt EXCO to raise concerns. That is not how Council works and we cannot allow that and there are serious consequences to such action,” Nxumalo said.

Nxumalo also appealed to staff to follow proper Council processes when raising concerns.

“As Council, we are concerned about the plight of the workers. It’s a pity that the situation has reached this level before we have exhausted the process we had agreed on. Once the matter has been finalised, we will revert to the Executive Committee and thereafter brief affected staff,” Nxumalo added.

Last month, Sithole said a grading forum has been established and the committee needed to review job profiles as well as other outstanding grading issues in the entire Municipality.

“The grading forum needs to be trained so that they can execute their duties diligently and objectively. The issues that the VIP Protection Officers have presented are not unique and a benchmarking exercise was done by the Security Management Unit. So we can’t look at this matter in isolation from the broader organisation issues,” Sithole said.

He added that staff must rest assured that the City was nearer to resolving the issue than ever before.

“The process is moving forward. The next step is to meet with the relevant labour stakeholders, which includes the two main municipal unions Samwu and Imatu, to discuss how best to accelerate the regrading process,” he said.