Update – VIDEO: Home Affairs officials start picketing before strike
The local Department of Home Affairs' officials are picketing every day before work and during their lunch hour this week, ahead of a strike that will start next week.
MBOMBELA – An official strike has been arranged to start countrywide on Monday.
The employees are protesting against having a six-day work week, stating that they either want Saturdays off, or to be paid for overtime.
“We want a normal 40-hour week like everybody else, or they have to pay us extra, but we cannot go on like this,” one official said.
The picketing only took place before work and during the lunch hour (13:00-13:30), and the office remained open and business continued as usual this week.
According to a recent press statement by Thabo Mokgola, national spokesman for the department, home affairs has been engaged in a protracted dispute with the Public Servants Association of South Africa, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union and the National Union of Public Service & Allied Workers on the issue of implementation of new opening and closing hours.
“This dispute dates as far back as March 2015. The unions objected to officials working on Saturdays, which, according to them, officials would effectively be required to work for six days in a week as opposed to five. This, according to the unions, meant extra transport costs for officials spread over six days, to cover Saturdays, and costs incurred towards caring for members’ minor children, as well as leave allocation,” he stated.
The department indicated it is not in a financial position to consider and accede to their demand of payment for overtime. Instead, it tabled an alternative settlement proposal in which officials would be granted a day off during the week, on Wednesdays, to ensure that they do not extend their days over six days.
This would further mean that officials would work a full day on a Saturday, comprising an eight-hour shift. Officials would still work a total of 40 hours per week in line with the law.
The unions rejected the department’s offer, and instead tabled a further demand that home affairs suspend the current opening and closing hours, and suggesting that officials be allowed to work on Saturdays, albeit on a voluntary basis.
“This proposal was not acceptable to the department, as it would pose serious challenges for proper planning, work scheduling and accountability, and would also compromise service delivery, to which the public has become accustomed,” said Mokgola.
“Subsequent to the conciliation effort undertaken which regrettably failed to yield any positive outcome, the unions have now served the department with a notice to strike from June 19,” he added.
