eThekwini hopes shift system will improve productivity
The Shift System will be implemented to curb the lack of productivity in eThekwini Workers and the spiralling costs of their excessive use of overtime pay.
ACCORDING to eThekwini Municipality, the metro’s service-delivery challenges result from low staff productivity and operational inefficiency.
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As a result, the municipal executive committee (Exco) asked the council to approve developing a shift system for its staff to improve service delivery and reduce overtime bills. This is contained in a recent statement by Exco after it granted its Organisational Development and Change Management (ODCM) Unit to implement the Shift Systems Development Policy. This comes after communities in Ward 97 and beyond complained of eThekwini workers who are often seen loafing around and doing nothing during the week but who also work overtime on weekends.
eThekwini’s staff complement stands at 25 000, and it has paid over R3.6 billion in overtime in the past six years. The Exco said it has realised that overtime utilisation has shifted from being a necessary provision for operational demands to being a means for supplementary income for its staff, resulting in a provision that is seemingly inadequate in addressing a continuously expanding deficit that staff create through adapting their lifestyles to a total sum exceeding the salary provision.
“The overtime trend has extensively surpassed budgeted provisions and has ultimately removed the value proposition of having overtime as an operational catalyst for necessitated provision,” said a statement by the Exco.
It further said that the Shift Systems Development Policy has been identified as a tool to improve operational performance, business sustainability and service-delivery excellence within the municipality. Municipal manager Musa Mbhele has mandated the development of this policy to scientifically determine and institute optimal shift systems, which will ensure the alignment of operating mechanisms to these strategic objectives.
The eThekwini Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association has welcomed the shift system, saying it should be tightly enforced once implemented.
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