Go-slow over pay

Date: 18 April 2016 By: Andries van Zyl

A salary war is brewing at the Makhado Municipality (MM), resulting in a go-slow by members of both the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (IMATU).

Since last week, residents might have noticed a slackness in service delivery. This was most noticeable with regard to refuse removal not being done for days on end.

Municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi confirmed on Monday that members of SAMWU and IMATU had embarked on a go-slow. The two departments most affected, he said, were the departments of community (waste collection) and technical services (electricity). 

Asked why these union members were on a go-slow, Bobodi said that the benchmarking of salaries was the reason. “Council resolved that benchmarking of salaries should be done through job evaluation under the auspices of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). Council further offered an ex-gratia amount of R15 000, spread over three years, for each employee in lieu of the plus minus 10 years’ non-completion of job evaluation process by SALGA, hoping that this time job evaluation will be completed within three years from now,” Bobodi said.

The issue of benchmarking served before Council on 8 October last year with the aim of “standardizing” employees' salaries in municipalities. Council recommended that the MM should collect its own data and implement the Council resolution on the benchmarking of employees' salaries as soon as possible. The sub-committee on Basic Conditions, comprising representatives of the municipality as employer and both unions, was then mandated by the Local Labour Forum (LLF) to collect such data.

As part of the process, the sub-committee visited six municipalities that are on the same grade as the Makhado Municipality. The municipalities visited were those of Lephalale, Thulamela, Thabazimbi, Molemole, Vhembe and Modimolle. Over and above the six municipalities visited, the committee eventually decided to benchmark with the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) and submitted a report to this effect to the LLF.

In a nutshell, the report states that the municipality may benchmark with the GTM. The report makes it clear, however, that Council should take note that the GTM is not coping with the payment of salaries as a result of the benchmarking they undertook.

With the report indicating that the GTM is struggling to cope financially after the implementation of the benchmarking, the MM had to rethink their plans. They then, among others, asked the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA) for advice.

On 8 December last year, CoGHSTA advised the municipality that they should not conduct benchmarking but should consider allowing the SALGA Job Evaluation Project that was already underway to unfold, since it was expected that such a process would allow for the proper evaluation of jobs and the determination of salaries for employees. The same sentiment was shared by SALGA, who advised the municipality to prioritise the job evaluation project. In response, the municipality then requested SALGA to speed up this evaluation process. SALGA then undertook to activate the Vhembe District Job Evaluation Unit to speed up the process.

With the promise to speed up the job evaluation process, the Speaker of the Makhado Municipality, Cllr L B Mogale, announced during the Council meeting of 8 December that the benchmarking for municipal employees would be implemented in the 2016/17 budget awaiting comments from the provincial Treasury and CoGHSTA.

The reality, however, seems to be that the MM might, as is the case with the GTM, not be able to afford implementing benchmarking. Council’s 29 March agenda (under item 1.29.03.16) contains an employment cost report outlining the cost implications to Council. The report states that the cost of benchmarking was calculated by the budget and treasury department and amounted to R19 869 255,55 per annum. The total employment cost for the 2016/17 financial year, including senior managers and councillors, is R273 313 000. “Therefore the estimated benchmark cost for 2016/17 will be R293 182 255.55, which is 33,18% of the total revenue budget of the municipality,” the report states. It goes on to say that if the municipality includes, on average, the proposed 6,6% salary increase, the projected cost will be R312 532 253, which will be 36,4% of the draft 2016/17 total revenue. “The municipality will struggle to pay such a steep salary increase; and there will be a huge reduction in expendable income for other own income financed operational projects in future budgets if we were to implement the benchmarking costs equivalent to Greater Tzaneen Municipality,” the report reads.

Faced with these financial figures, the municipality took a look at other options. The report states that Council might consider the Modimolle Municipality's option, wherein they opted for a once-off non-pensionable allowance paid to all employees except Section 57 managers and councillors. This option, the report argues, can be supported based on the fact that SALGA has not managed to finalize the job evaluation process since 2004. “Hence the employees are aggrieved and agitated if nothing is done to improve their salaries. It is proposed in the case of our municipality that a non-pensionable allowance of R15 000 per each employee, staggered over three years, can be affordable with a belief based on the correspondence between SALGA and the municipality that the job evaluation might be finalized by the 2018/19 financial year,” the report reads.

It was this proposal as accepted by Council which inevitably led to union members' embarking on a go-slow. They argue that Council is backtracking on its decision, as announced as a Council resolution by the Speaker in December, to benchmark salaries – leaving them to continue working on empty promises. According to local SAMWU secretary Mr Ronny Rihlampfu, it is unfair to couple the issue of benchmarking of salaries to that of SALGA’s job evaluation project – a project that SALGA could not complete since 2004. “Many of the employees still don’t even have a job description,” Rihlampfu said. Another grievance, Rihlampfu said, was that although they were part of the initial process of consultation in deciding to implement benchmarking, they were not party to any further discussions that ultimately led to Council's decision not to implement benchmarking immediately, but merely make a R15 000 pay-off. He argued that this meant nothing to employees, as they might get the first R5 000 this year, but not next year as there was a clause that the payment of the R15 000 over three years would be stopped as soon as the job evaluation process was completed.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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