Court issues order against Tshwane in battle for salaries
Tshwane however still aims to issue more letters that will have employees subject themselves to explanations as to why they agree with the docking of their salaries and for them to propose a repayment plan to recover the monies they were paid whilst on strike.
Court proceedings are still underway between Tshwane and Imatu regarding the more than 20% of the workers’ salaries for August being withheld.
Tshwane was ordered to pay about 60 employees recently who had their salaries docked, with a fraction of them still fighting for their cuts to be paid out.
The ongoing battle stems from a swarm of workers who are members of the independent municipal and allied trade union (Imatu) complaining they were short-paid on their salaries in August.
The labour court was approached to mediate the battle and on October 26 it ordered 60 union members be paid for August.
Tshwane had docked about 25% of their pay for allegedly failing to execute their duty during the unprotected strike that disrupted the metro’s service delivery and revenue collection schemes.
Tshwane decided to recall salaries after the court granted it a permanent interdict against striking employees and declared the strike unlawful and unprotected in September.
Employees’ salaries withheld were however reinstated through an urgent court interdict brought by Imatu.
But on October 26, acting Judge Mark Morgan ordered that Tshwane was prohibited from making any deductions from Imatu members’ October salaries for allegedly participating in strike action.
“If such deductions are made by the respondent [Tshwane] from applicants [Imatu] members’ salaries for October, the respondent is ordered to affect a re-run and pay at its own expense…”
Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the metro had agreed with Imatu on October 25, that it would reverse its decision to dock the salaries.
“The court process was a formality and endorsement of the agreement reached with Imatu.
“The Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA) requires the employer not to deduct more than 25% of an employee’s salary. The deductions affected were over the 25% threshold, hence the reason for the reversal.”
He said Tshwane was however in the process of composing letters to employee Imatu and the SA municipal workers union members confirmed to have been on strike.
He said the intention of the letters was to:
– Inform them of the amount that Tshwane intends to deduct from their salaries.
– Allow employees an opportunity to respond, and
– Where there is an agreement, propose a repayment plan to recover the monies paid whilst on strike.
“Imatu has alleged that its members were not on strike but the factual situation was that many refused to perform their duties even though they signed attendance registers. This in effect meant that they were on strike in terms of the definition of a strike as contained in the Labour Relations Act.”
Regional Imatu manager Lynette Burns-Coetzee said the matter was expected to continue in court on November 14.
She said the matter was postponed on November 3 as courts had to shut their doors.
“Imatu must now file its replying affidavit by November 7. We are following up on about two short payments.”
Burns-Coetzee said about 60 members had been paid.
“Tshwane only started reversing the deductions from October 30, and finalised these reversals on November 1.
“This meant that the 60 Imatu members did not receive money on October 26 and all their debit orders were not honoured. Now they have incurred bank costs.”
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