The 184 workers who were laid off by the NW405 municipality are still demanding reinstatement and have accused the Department of Labour and the municipality of fraud and corruption.
Moeketsane Jantjie, the spokesperson of the group of workers says it seems odd that the Department of Labour determined their UIF payouts even though they did not receive payslips for the duration of their employment. ‘Where did they get the information and how accurate and reliable was it? Some workers were paid R2 700; others were paid R3 700, and others R4 700 even though we all had the same duties, the same contract and worked for the same period. Why is there a different UIF payout? This is fraud,’ he insisted.
According to Jantjie, the officials at the Department of Labour informed them, on 22 March, that they were busy processing their new UIF calculations. This means, therefore, that even those who have already received these questionable UIF payouts will form part of the new calculations for the UIF payout. ‘Our concern is what the department is processing if there were no payslips. The workers do not have any idea how much was deducted from their salaries,’ he said. He added that the department erred when the municipality hired the workers. He says no inspection was conducted to ensure that the municipality complied with the labour laws. ‘The department only acted after their contracts had been terminated. ‘Why did it fail to inspect the process of hiring at the municipality?’ he asked.
He says the municipality’s unfair treatment has also caught the eye of one of the inspectors at the Department of Labour. ‘She advised us to lodge a complaint at the CCMA because we have a strong case,’ he says.
Jantjie alleged that the discrepancies in the salary scales that EPWP workers are paid suggest the prevalence of fraud within the municipality. ‘As we have said previously, some workers, who did the same work under the same contract earned twice as much as the others. This means the municipality owes each of those who were paid a meagre salary of R2 034 about R62 000,’ he said.
He added that the cracks are already starting to appear. ‘The graveyards and parks are neglected. This is the work we used to do. We were the ones who kept Potchefstroom clean and won the awards for the municipality’, he said. In the light of some 500 vacant posts in the municipality, Jantjie would like the 184 workers to be rehired on a permanent basis.
At the time of going to print, the Department of Labour and NW405 Municipality had still not responded to the workers’ allegations.
