Nkomazi Local Municipality workers down tools demanding overtime pay
The municipal manager has promised the aggravated employees that their overtime salaries would be paid to them by the end of February.
Some of the Nkomazi Local Municipality’s (NLM) employees affiliated with the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) downed their tools on Wednesday January 31.
They marched to the municipal manager’s office to demand payment of their overtime hours worked over the holidays. In their interaction with him, Xolani Mabila, they indicated that an agreement had been reached between the two parties that their overtime hours would be paid in January, which was not the case.
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“We have met with the management of the municipality before, and they made a promise that overtime would be paid, and it wasn’t. We are, however, happy that today the municipal manager gave us the reasons for the delay, and has given his word that the money in question would be paid to the employees by February 25. We will be following up to see if that is happening. If it doesn’t, we are surely taking the next step, which is taking the matter to the bargaining council,” said SAMWU Nkomazi’s spokesperson, Nkosinathi Mkhwanazi.
Some of the issues on their memorandum includes a wage gap between the employees who had joined the municipality before 2010 and those who joined afterwards. The NLM’s spokesperson, Cyril Ripinga, says there has been a miscommunication between the municipality and its workers.
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“Everything else is being processed just as it should. There was a communication breakdown. We have now addressed them. The system takes a certain amount of time to process some of the things, and that has been the case. In terms of the task levels, this is a matter that has to be taken to council for approval, because the municipality doesn’t have a promotion policy. The council has to sit and approve for certain workers to be changed from one task level to another. This also comes as a result of the fact that we have inherited some workers from water affairs. There is a certain administration process that needs to be undertaken, and the processes have already been started,” said Ripinga.
