Three employees say they were denied a fair chance to compete for a management position after their colleague was appointed.
Three Bushbuckridge municipal employees are still waiting for compensation after an arbitrator found recruitment procedures were not followed. Picture: ActionSA
The Bushbuckridge Local Municipality in Mpumalanga has been ordered to pay three employees more than R500 000 in compensation after an arbitrator found that it failed to follow proper recruitment procedures when appointing an asset manager.
According to an arbitration award seen by The Citizen, the municipality failed to advertise the position or follow the prescribed recruitment process, prompting the three employees to lodge an unfair labour practice complaint.
Municipality ordered to pay employees
The employees, who had been working in the municipality’s asset management unit, had hoped to compete for the position after the previous manager retired in March last year.
On July 29 this year, the South African Local Government Bargaining Council ruled in their favour and ordered the municipality to collectively compensate them more than R500 000.
The municipality was required to pay by 25 August, but the employees have not received the money.
Municipal sources confirmed compensation is unpaid. In a letter of demand dated 1 September, attorneys representing the employees accused the municipality of failing to comply with the arbitration award.
The attorneys gave the municipality 48 hours from receipt of the letter to pay, warning that failure to do so would result in legal proceedings being instituted.
The letter, addressed to municipal manager Jasper Ngobeni and the chief financial officer, also warned that the municipality could be held jointly and severally liable for additional legal costs.
The attorneys indicated they would seek a punitive costs order as further litigation would result in unnecessary expense.
Employees challenge asset manager appointment
Before approaching the bargaining council, the employees had written to Ngobeni, asking him to intervene over what they described as being denied a fair opportunity to compete for the position.
In the letter they said: “As accountants who have been in the asset management unit for many years, we were deprived of the opportunity to grow since there was no proper advertisement and interviews where we could be granted an equal opportunity to compete.”
They questioned whether the appointment complied with the municipality’s recruitment, selection and appointment policy.
The employees cited Section 10.3, which states that positions for managers and senior managers must be advertised on the municipality’s website and in local and national newspapers.
“The process followed in the appointment of the asset manager was not in line with the recruitment, selection and appointment policy,” their letter reads.
They called on the municipality to clarify the recruitment process and address the alleged noncompliance.
Municipality defends recruitment process
However, the municipality dismissed allegations of unfair labour practice and irregularities, saying the appointment was to retain an employee with valuable skills and experience.
Ngobeni said the municipality had probed the complaint but found no evidence of unfair discrimination.
He said the Basic Conditions of Employment Act allowed an accounting officer to offer better employment conditions in the interests of the municipality and the implementation of its approved staff establishment.
He said Section 10.1 of the municipality’s recruitment policy did not apply in this instance.
Labour expert Bukani Mngoma said he would have expected the arbitrator to declare the recruitment process unfair and order the municipality to restart the internal recruitment process.
On why the municipality had failed to pay the arbitration award, municipal spokesperson Fhumulani Thovhakale did not respond.
