Census field workers employed by Stats SA, servicing areas in Gauteng have threatened to withdraw the reminder of their services due to a lack of payment from a temporary job described as dangerous, poorly managed and filled with inaccurate data.

This as Statistics South Africa has failed to pay salaries since February to numerous recruited residents.

The census is the fourth population count since 1994.

The registration of the field workers and volunteers was officially opened in December 2021, and later extended to January 31 to accommodate matriculants for future employment.

On Thursday numerous field workers protested outside Stats SA offices in Pretoria to deliver a memorandum of demands due to an issue of non-paid salaries.

Representative of the protesting fieldworkers Moagi Thebe said: “We have been working under very difficult conditions, had targets to beat and still have to continue to do so, however we are unpaid.”

Thebe said Stats SA had promised to pay them since March 11, but no salaries notifications had been received from their banks.

“Fieldworkers were only protesting for their rightly earned salaries, despite allegations of colleagues being casualties to crimes such as sexual harassment and racial slurs, due to lack of security in their jobs and management.

“Only a handful of fieldworkers were being paid.

“We are suffering and it has almost been two months without pay. What should we eat, where should we sleep?”

Thebe claimed that Stats SA had not paid them as technical issues had occurred on the Stats SA side.

“How can we submit our ID, matric certificate, banking detail and physical address to Stats SA before employment, and later receive tools to carry out the job, however, when pay time arises, some members’ identification numbers are missing or inaccurate?”

He said all the men and women roaming streets in the name of census 2022 were urging anyone who could assist them in receiving their salaries to help.

“All the fieldworks that were collecting data need an income to survive, even if the funds were little and temporary.”

He said further it was unfair for Stats SA to extend the project without paying employees.

Stats SA acting DDG for corporate services, Bruce Jooste said Stats SA had witnessed a challenge in the salary payments of supervisors and fieldworkers.

He said these challenges were that some employees had banking details in their spouses’ names or different ID numbers as to their banks.

Jooste said 13 000 payments were due to go through on Friday, as the department was paying members in batches, while others would continue from Monday.

“Everyone is on a list we are dealing with as received provincially.”

Jooste assured employees that Stats SA would resolve the matter as data production was already affected.