Mbombela commits to millions in danger pay

The council adopted the danger allowance policy last Friday.

This policy is thought to extend to over 1 000 municipal workers, including lifeguards, street light attendants and metre readers, among others, who worked during lockdown levels three, four and five.

The policy states that through the allowance the municipality intends to ensure all employees qualifying for the allowance are correctly identified and compensated.

It also intends on setting a standardised process to ensure the payment and management of the danger allowance is done in a “fair and accountable manner”.

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Mbombela DA councillor, Sanley van der Merwe, said that the municipality was not in the financial position to support the implementation of the policy and said that there was more work to be done on the policy itself regarding who qualified and how working hours could be verified.

“I requested, on behalf of the DA, that the matter be deferred until the next council meeting later this month to properly go over the policy and iron out the wrinkles.

“As the DA we support the inclusion of an occupational health and safety allowance that can be incorporated with an existing human-resources policy and be applied to employees that fall within this category, but a ‘danger allowance’ is not stated in the Basic Conditions of Employment Act or the Labour Relations Act or the Labour Relations Act as amended.”

The policy sets out a standard danger allowance, and the additional “special danger pay” during Covid-19.

The policy states the standard danger allowance of R600 as per the local labour forum agreement/council resolution shall be paid to qualifying employees.

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“A danger allowance shall be paid for the period during which the employee was actually exposed to the danger.

“The municipality shall pay the danger allowance on the date an eligible employee receives his or her salary and that the payment of the allowance will stop if the employee is no longer eligible to receive the allowance,” stated the policy.

“The municipality will pay a danger allowance on a monthly basis to a qualifying employee, if that employee experiences a genuine risk to his or her life each and every time he or she undertakes prescribed duties.

“The danger allowance will be determined and paid to a qualifying employee for the specific days on which that particular employee experienced a genuine risk to his or her life while performing the prescribed duties.”

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The special danger allowance of R350, according to the policy, shall be paid to qualifying employees per month, which is an additional payment to the danger allowance determine above.

The special danger allowance for Covid-19 shall be paid for lockdown levels three, four and five only to employees who were at work during the lock down levels stated above and as declared from time to time.

“Can this additional allowance be justified? How are municipal staff in more danger than the rest of the country?

“Is a wage bill of just under R100 million for the City not already bloated enough? Is the municipality delivering on its core mandate of providing basic services? Is the municipality not under severe financial pressure?” asked Van der Merwe.

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“All municipal staff received full remuneration, including benefits, since the inception of the disaster management regulations (lockdown period),” she said.

“The City of Mbombela does not use biometric access control to determine which employees worked from home and/or whether they were exposed to any hazardous environment.

“The list of qualifying employees as indicated in the policy includes areas of work that in no way qualify for ‘danger allowance’ as the employee would at no point have been exposed to a risk created by the Covid-19 virus.

“Safe social distancing, wearing of face mark, and sanitising hands would have been more than sufficient to keep the employee safe”.  

Van der Merwe added that internal control on approval of this allowance is not in place.

“The most vulnerable communities in the City of Mbombela have been affected severely by the pandemic.

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“This includes job losses, loss of lives, no access to sanitisers , face masks or running water, people forced to stand in line waiting to collect grants and losing some of their grants.

“All of this without any precautions or safety measures put in place to assist these individuals. Would this money not be better spent by considering these issues?”

Lowvelder sent questions to CMLM regarding the policy , and how it might affect payment plans to its creditors , as well as its contingency plan to National Treasury, which if not strictly followed, could see the municipality default and Treasury withhold the City’s budget allocation.

Municipal spokesperson Joseph Ngala responded by sending a copy of the policy to Lowvelder, saying the response was covered in the policy.

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