“We are not happy with the municipal organogram, among others,” said Mr Vusi Pilson, chairman of the local SAMWU on Monday, March 31.
After a meeting with various municipal stakeholders, SAMWU members returned to work on Wednesday, April 2.
“The mayor, Cllr Salomie Sithole, promised us that the municipal structures will be looked at. She has asked for a special council meeting this coming Thursday,” said Pilson.
The city’s administrator Mr Theo van Vuuren acknowledged this, “Yesterday a series of meetings took place with the union leadership and the union. My directors and myself reached an agreement on the way forward on the issues which resulted in the strike. We also agreed that the staff will in the remainder of this week catch up on the service backlogs caused by this action over the past two days and that both union and management will commit to a process to prevent further interruptions in service delivery.”
Van Vuuren coloured in the background of the feud.
He said the municipal organogram has not been reviewed since 2007 to a point of approval by council. In November 2011 council accepted a revised organogram and referred it to the Local Labour Forum (LLF) for review. The LLF accepted a structure with amendments in October 2012.
“For reasons unknown to me this structure was not taken back to council for final consideration and was not on any agenda for discussion with me since I took over the administration in April 2013,” Van Vuuren said.
“As the administration reviewed activities one of the outstanding matters we determined is to get a new organogram which will follow on the turn around strategy. The principle of structure follows strategy applied. During 2013 and early 2014 the municipal integrated development plan was reviewed and in this process we held various directorate strategic sessions and also an organisation wide session during December. We also obtained professional advice from Price Waterhouse Cooper as well as the Office of the Premier.
The outcome of this was a new revised organogram focusing on the current strategic challenges of the municipality. This structure differed in some important respects from the October 2012 structure. As the LLF has not met for some months due to non attendance of key Councillors, I then engaged with both unions on the matter and after consulting their members they agreed that this new organogram can be submitted as a matter of urgency to council. This happened at the end of January.”
Van Vuuren said at the council meeting this new organogram was referred back for further refinement.
Before the matter could be finalised with the council, SAMWU called a meeting and went on strike to force the matter of the organogram to be finalised with council.
“Unfortunately in the deliberations with the Speaker and some council members, they agreed that the organogram already accepted in 2012 by the LLF must go back to council and that further review of the organogram to align with the strategy will only follow thereafter. The Speaker specifically supported this approach and as a result the 2012 organogram was accepted by council at its meeting end February. At this meeting the administration including myself, cautioned against adopting this 2012 organogram as it will immediately be out of line with the development strategy of the municipality.
Council then added a clause to its adoption opening the door for immediate review as we are finalising the 2014/15 Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP),” Van Vuuren said.
He said a further meeting then took place between the Speaker and union, and one between the speaker, himself and union members.
“At these meetings they decided to make some amendments to the 2012 organogram and again indicated that they will consider further revisions while we finalise the 2014/15 IDP. The revised 2012 organogram was then taken to a LLF meeting a week ago and on March 26 the union and a representative from the Secretariat to Council brought me a revised document for sign off so it can serve at the council meeting on March 27. The cover document was not complete and I cautioned them that such a late submission is outside council procedures and may be deferred as council would not have had enough time to have studied it prior to the meeting. However, they insisted on the submission on which basis I recommended it to council but again reiterating my concerns and the need to immediately on adoption to review it to align it to the IDP”.
At the council meeting it was recommended that this item stand over as councillors did not have time to study it as it was a very late submission. Council then decided as such.
“If we have no joy after the council meeting on Thursday we will engage in further mass action,” said Pilson.
Watch the footage of the municipal unrest
