Education staff picket over alleged non-payment of dues

Around 30 staff members from the Department of Education have since last Tuesday picketed during their lunch hours due to the alleged non-payment of money owed to them for bonuses with regard to the Performance and Development System (PMDS) of the public service.
The PMDS for public service staff was introduced to ensure that there is a structured process to hold staff accountable and to support them and also contains provisions for recognising and rewarding good performance.
These provisions seek to ensure that staff members who perform exceptionally well are acknowledged in order to encourage them to maintain their standard of excellence thereby improving service delivery.
Treasury Regulations, 20016 Part 3, Chapter 5 of the Treasury Regulations deal with strategic planning and the requirements to effectively link departmental strategy to budgets and state departments need to budget for projected salary increases and financial rewards that may be allocated to members based on framework determinations made by the Minister for the Public Service and Administration (MPSA).
According to the picketers, who are members of the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu), they have not been paid PMDS since 2012/13, and the department has decided to pay only 10% of qualifying employees. According to them all employees with a rating of 4 and above should be paid a performance bonus according to the PMDS.
“Performance Management and Development System 2012 Guidelines for completion of the new PMDS” from the then Department of Public expenditure states that “Special attention should be taken when awarding the rating number. There is the perception that a rating of 3 carries a negative connotation. This should not be the case. It needs to be understood that a rating of 3 means that the Jobholder’s performance is fully acceptable, and has met all of the role requirements to the required standard ” and “Ratings higher than 3 should only be awarded in cases where the performance has significantly exceeded the required standard.”
Nehawu demands that certain officials be removed from their positions because of their failure to implement “the letter and spirit” of circulars from the Department of Public service and Administration (DPSA) dated 23 November 2012 and the Office of the Premier dated 13 January 2016 regarding payment of the PMDS. They allegedly decided to pay bonuses to 10% of workers only.
A spokesperson of the picketers also made allegations against an official allegedly guilty of nepotism for transferring a family member to the department as of 1 July and alleged that internal officials were not given a chance to compete for the position.
The department’s comment on the issue has not yet been received at the time of going to press.

Story and photos: NELIE ERASMUS
>>nelie.observer@gmail.com

Featured photo: A staff member of the Department of Education pickets during the lunch hour. The department owes them money, some 30 picketing staff members allege.