The Newcastle Municipality may see massive changes to its salary structures, as a call for stricter salary benchmarking was issued following the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) strike.
On Tuesday, the EXCO sitting was delayed by nearly two hours as officials, shop stewards and politicians discussed a way forward. The meeting was closed to the public, but some of its contents were revealed during the sitting of EXCO.
Among the resolutions taken, EXCO adopted a motion to take the benchmarking of salaries throughout the municipality forward, to ensure a salary structure would be created to ensure the content of all municipal employees.
The processes involved in this would include the setting and submission of organograms, and the appointment a task team to evaluate submissions. Thereafter, the municipality could be benchmarked.
However, the time-frame for this is estimated to be between three to six months.
“The municipality does not have the capacity to conduct this independently, and it will take longer than just a few days,” explained acting Municipal Manager, Errol Mswane.
EXCO member, Dr Jacobus Vorster said these tests were done in the past, but everything fell apart.
He alleged someone somewhere was deliberately holding up the processes. Mr Mswane said that previously, when the evaluations were done, they had been disputed and this resulted in the hold over.
He said: “Workers often forget, and hold upper management at fault when the upper limits salaries are increased, but these increases do not extend down.”
