Opposition councillors say staff were out of line
"The best would be for people to take their refuse to the Show Grounds, and for the municipality to arrange to take the refuse from there to the landfill site."- IFP Councillor, Dr Koos Vorster.
Original story: Municipal workers down tools for overtime pay
Councillors who were sympathetic to the frustration of the workers, also felt the action they took to express their frustration was ‘out of line’.
IFP Councillor, Dr Koos Vorster said things would have been different had management conveyed to the workers how bad the financial situation of the municipality is.
“Management should have told them earlier. If people know what the problem is, they tend to accept it. If they don’t know, it drives them crazy,” said Dr Vorster.
“But what the workers did at the council chambers was totally wrong and I believe a disciplinary is the way to go. Officials need to sit around the table with trade unions to come to a solution that is best for the town. Both sides need to be willing to take a step towards each other. We need cool, calm, level heads to negotiate. Until then, the best would be for people to take their refuse to the Show Grounds, and for the municipality to arrange to take the refuse from there to the landfill site.”
DA councillor, Bertie Meiring agreed there must be consequences for the actions taken by the staff: “The people who brought the municipal trucks to the Show Grounds are employed in positions requiring a keen sense of responsibility.
They can’t just take an emergency or service delivery vehicle and park it there. There must be consequences.
Those trucks belong to the municipality. At the same time, you can’t allow someone to work and when you have to pay him, you say sorry.
Yes, overtime expenditure is out of hand, but it is the responsibility of the supervisors to ensure staff work during the day and there is no overtime abuse. If the supervisors are not doing their jobs, there must be consequences.
I think what would have been fair, when the municipality realised it would not have enough money, would be to determine the percentage it would need to cut salaries by, and then cut across the board from all municipal officials and councillors.
“It was not fair to pay senior managers and staff their full salaries, when you can’t afford to pay the worker who is actually doing the work on the ground.”
ALSO READ: MM says municipality ran out of money to pay overtime
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