CCMA engages Tshwane as more dismissals loom
Tshwane has dismissed almost 200 employees, while others are in the pipeline of being dismissed, according to the metro.
The CCMA has resolved to intervene in the Tshwane versus staff stalemate in a bid to smooth the dispute over.
The bid by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in Tshwane is to look at expediting the resolution of the salary dispute stemming from July 24.
The engagements are also at a point when the Capital City promises to dismiss more employees to resuscitate service delivery.
According to Tshwane, service delivery has taken a devastating knock as revenue collection declined drastically due to the three-month stalemate.
The stalemate is a result of payment disputes after Tshwane reneged on the implementation of a 3.5% and 5.4% salary increase for the years 2021 and 2022.
The metro, and municipal workers’ union Samwu and Imatu have been at loggerheads over increases while the metro howled bankruptcy.
Tshwane had on August 10, sought an exemption from paying about 29 000 employees according to the 2021 salary and wage collective agreement.
However, this failed when on September 10, SALGBC senior commissioner Eleanor Hambidge declined the exemption request.
The metro had claimed the increases would cost it R602-million a year.
The matter has since been swung in the direction of the labour court for further arguments.
Tshwane city manager Johann Mettler said when the new financial year started in July, the metro had not achieved its revenue collection targets.
The unlawful protest action began on July 24.
Since the dawn of this protest, Tshwane has witnessed violence and destruction losing a portion of its vehicle fleet in flares of violence and damage, while infrastructure also fell into ruin.
“In July, the revenue collection reached 82.02% however dropped to 76.08% in August.”
CCMA director Adv. Cameron Sello Morajane said the commission had approached, the unstable negotiation table to facilitate an end to hostilities and bring stability to Tshwane salary wars.
Morajane said the CCMA was engaging the parties involved in an S150 public interest intervention, whereby all parties have fair and equal opportunity to make submissions and negotiate a deal if it is at all possible.
He said the intervention process was ongoing.
“The process is still in progress and will continue as such until both parties are prepared to engage.
“The objective of the CCMA is to assist the parties resolve the matter on terms that are reasonable and implementable for all parties.”
Morajane said the role of the CCMA was to facilitate a continuing dialogue between the affected stakeholders to expedite the resolution of the dispute.
“This role could see the end of the protracted stalemate.”
Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the metro would dismiss employees’ turtle-pacing service delivery.
Bokaba said the metro was also quantifying how much it had lost as the violence and attacks from the strike still hovered over Tshwane.
“Departments have been provided with a template to populate the impact of the strike and quantify the damage and losses in monetary terms. The exercise is underway.”
He said bus service and other revenue collection remained hampered by the salary dispute.
“Majority of employees are back, except pockets of them who report for duty, but refuse to carry out any work in regions 4 and 6.”
Bokaba said the metro continued to issue dismissal letters as it found it effective in dealing with the exemption application reaction.
“We realised that issuing of the intended letters of dismissal has had a desired effect in jolting employees to return to work as they noticed that the city was serious.
“Almost 200 employees have been dismissed and others are in the pipeline of being dismissed.”
He said the HR department was in the process of effecting the dismissals.
Tshwane has also embarked on a crusade to fill the positions of the recently dismissed employees.
The drive follows a notice by Mettler’s office on October 3 asking that the head of regional operations and coordination Cali Phanyane move forward with filling the vacancies created by the dismissals.
Mettler said the process of filling the close to 150 vacant positions was still in the nascent phase and some political parties were against it.
“I have given authority for recruitment to begin.”
Mettler said the process was urgently initiated to respond to the dire need to kick-start service delivery operations so it was not to be compromised by a lack of human capacity.
