Workers demand back pay from 2016

Services rendered by Ray Nkonyeni Municipality’s (RNM) Community Services department was briefly halted on Monday morning last week, after workers downed tools in protest.

The workers marched to the RNM council chambers demanding backpay of over 18 months, saying that they had heard that some RNM councillors had started receiving the money in October 2023.

They say the backpay owed to them comes after the amalgamation of Hibiscus Coast Municipality and Ezinqoleni Municipality during the August 2016 local government elections.

The workers said they should be back paid from 2016.

“The reason why we are here is because of the amalgamation that happened a few years ago. It was said that our municipality needed to be graded before we could get our backpay. We heard that people received money for 18 months in October 2023. After councillors received their money, no one came to us as workers to tell us when we would get our money. Our backpay will be for 21 months now, if we are counting from October 2023 when councillors received their payments,” said one of the workers.

Another worker said it’s currently very hard to work while hearing people bragging about amounts of R200 000 and above that they received as part of their backpay when you are still waiting for the money.

“The merger of the two municipalities affected all employees of RNM, so why is the money being given out in portions and only to certain employees,” said the worker.

Addressing the workers at the Community Services depot in Port Shepstone, RNM municipal manager Khetha Zulu said it was sad that services had to be interrupted for something that could have been sorted out in a meeting.

Zulu said the process of merging the two municipalities was driven by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).

“They wrote to us telling us that municipalities that are being amalgamated will have to take the grading of the municipality that has a higher categorisation. Ezinqoleni’s grading was 2 and Hibiscus Coast’s was 4 so we took 4 as per Cogta’s directive. The issues of the councillors’ salaries and workers’ salaries are not decided in one department. Employee salaries are decided upon after a bargaining process where the union meets with the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). The union represents the workers and SALGA represents the employer (the municipality). The salaries of management of the municipality and councillors are decided by Cogta. It is not the council or management of the municipality that decides what grade workers ought to be on,” said Zulu.

Zulu added that they heard that the categorisation for workers could be five, saying that, that report is not final yet.

He said the bargaining council needs to finish its discussions with unions.
“After we have received a report saying that RNM is now this grade, we will implement that report,” he said.

HAVE YOUR SAY

Like the South Coast Fever’s Facebook page