‘Polluted working environments’, says PSC as unfair treatment dominate grievances in public sector

Government employees have complained about unfair treatment, such as bullying, in their workplace, according to the Public Service Commission (PSC).

The PSC released its quarterly Pulse of the Public Service bulletin in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Unfair treatment

PSC commissioner Anele Gxoyiya indicated that the commission has been dealing with hundreds of grievances, with 302 cases registered between 1 July and 30 September.

“45 of those grievances were not properly referred, which accounts for 15%, and 257 were properly referred,” he told the media on Tuesday.

Gxoyiya said 95% of the grievance referrals were done by employees and this was an indication that government departments have failed to resolve the grievances internally within the prescribed timeframes.

“Irrespective of whether the referral is made by the executive authorities or the aggrieved employees, properly referred grievances are dealt with through investigations or mediation,” the commissioner continued.

ALSO READ: Public servants’ disciplinary process is ‘being abused,’ warns PSC

According to the PSC report, of the 78 unfair treatment grievances, 45 were from national departments and 33 were from provincial departments.

“So you can see that there’s a lot of polluted working environments,” Gxoyiya said, adding that most of the unfair treatment cases stemmed from strained relations between supervisors and employees.

Gxoyiya said other cases of unfairness emanated from employees not understanding that they may be assigned to do “certain ad hoc functions” outside their job descriptions on a temporary basis, so they perceived their supervisors’ instructions as victimisation or bullying.

“So they would take that as victimisation, whilst in the true sense it is not victimisation.”

Watch the briefing below:

In view of the number of cases that were internally resolved after the PSC’s intervention, Gxoyiya said departments were encouraged to consider mediation instead of declaring disputes.

“That mediation would work well as an alternative means to resolve those conflicts.”

Gxoyiya revealed that the PSC received 796 760 calls via the national anti-corruption hotline, email and walk-ins, with the commission handling 136 complaints between April and September.

“As of 30 September, 76 complaints, which account for 56%, were closed and 60 were in progress…. but emanating from the investigations conducted and in instances where allegations were found to be substantiated, the Public Service Commission made recommendations to executive authorities to, among others, facilitate the institution of disciplinary action against implicated officials, approach courts to set aside [irregular] appointments, and to this end, investigation officers of the Public Service Commission have been requested to testify in disciplinary hearings.”

NOW READ: Unpaid invoices increase – Government owes service providers R11.1 billion, says PSC