EMS tells DA to mind its own business
JOBURG - City of Johannesburg Emergency Management Services (EMS) spokesperson, Robert Mulaudzi, quashed the Democratic Alliance's (DA) ‘misleading’ statement that the City must reinstate 1 400 firefighters who had been fired in contravention of the South African Local Government Association Bargaining Council (SALGABC) regulations.
DA Johannesburg Shadow MMC for Public Safety, Michael Sun, had released a statement saying the firefighters submitted an application to the council after their suspension and dismissal on 16 April last year. Sun said, “In its ruling, SALGBC set out in detail how the City’s EMS had acted in contravention of regulations, and wrongfully suspended the firefighters.
“The SALGBC collective agreement sets out the necessary procedure and persons authorised to suspend or dismiss employees. As a result, all the wrongly suspended or dismissed firefighters have to be reinstated.”
He said the City was subject to the jurisdiction of the council and bound by the SALGBC Disciplinary Procedure and Code Collective Agreement.
“Due to the significant number of firefighters involved, the DA wanted to ask the MMC for Public Safety urgent questions during a council meeting on 25 February 2016. However, the request was denied by the Speaker’s office with the reason that the question was not urgent,” Sun said.
In response, Mulaudzi said, “We have noted the statement from the DA and we found it to be misleading. The City of Johannesburg has a total of 1 400 firefighters operating on a day-to-day basis throughout the city of Johannesburg.
“If we had to fire 1 400 firefighters, the organisation would have been closed a long time ago and rendered useless because there [would] be no one to render essential services to the citizens of the city.” He reiterated that the City was not going to reinstate anyone because it had not fired anybody, as was alleged by the DA.
Mulaudzi stressed that any EMS employees who have been fired in the past were found to have transgressed the rules and regulations of the services utility after going through disciplinary processes and being found guilty of misconduct.
“We, therefore, would like to call on the DA to focus on political issues and excuse themselves from labour-related issues, and leave us, as EMS management and labour unions, to deal with labour-related issues. Instead, they must focus their energies on campaigning for the upcoming local government elections,” he said.
