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SAMWU Statement on the court process against the Ekurhuleni Municipality |
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SAMWU Statement on the court process against the Ekurhuleni Municipality
SAMWU PRESS STATEMENT
19 July 2010.
In an effort to ensure that workers rights and the community are not compromised & undermined; SAMWU has launched a review court application with the South Gauteng High Court, the focus of the review is on tenders that were awarded and did not follow the Municipal Systems Act (MSA) s78, the Organizational Rights agreement (ORA) and the 2008 strike agreement (clause 7).
We cannot wait until the Municipality is ruined, while there are other forms of struggles that we can engage on, to ensure that we protect the community and current jobs in the Municipality. The Municipality cannot be made a conveyer belt of money from the community to private hands of the so called BBBEE.
The Municipality should take responsibility for the services that supposed to be provided directly by the Municipality, as directed by the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The act of outsourcing services to private providers promotes a form of exploitation of blacks by blacks, in pursuit of selfish accumulation and is also a form of slavery. Workers that are working under private service providers are paid a fraction of employees in the sector.
The Municipality has 30 days to file opposing papers; we are waiting to see if they intend to oppose what the law directs in the MSA s78.
The MSA provides for participatory democracy to be observed in the delivery and configuration or re-configuration of services to the community. If this principle was adhered to it would have undoubtedly minimized community protests.
The ORA provides for good faith negotiations with Organized Labour in the Local Labour Forum, about the re-organization or re-configuration of services in the sector. The ORA was signed by parties in the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. Therefore Ekurhuleni Municipality cannot avoid agreed procedures because this forms part of the rules of engagement in the sector, which had not been followed.
The 2008 strike agreement clause 7 confirms that in the event any services is outsourced, workers under the private provider shall enjoy the same benefits as provided for in the SALGBC, including salaries, this however is not happening in the Municipality.
The affected services in the court application are:
• Refuse removal and mini-dumps (Environmental Department)
• Legal services (Legal & Corporate Department)
• Information & Communication Technology (ICT Department)
• Municipal courts services (Community Safety Department)
• Meter reading services (Infrastructure & Electricity Departments)
• Call centre for sewerage, water & electricity (Infrastructure & Electricity Departments)
• Road markings & repairs (Infrastructure Department)
• Street lights maintenance (Electricity Department)
• Mechanical services (Infrastructure Department)
• Offices cleaning (Many Departments)
• Travel arrangements (Legal & Corporate Department)
• Maintenance of sub-stations and repairs (Electricity Department)
• Recruitment process (Human Resource Management & Development Department) etc
The speed of outsourcing was increased by the intervention of the team of six from the Gauteng Provincial Government, through the then MEC Mahlangu. The team came in and we were promised a report of the work done, we are still waiting for the same report. We are also requesting the Premier to give the report if it was given to her.
Our strong believe is that the only thing done by the team of six was to prepare a javelin, so when things fall apart they will be gone. We also believe that the community and workers deserve to know the contents of the report.
The process that was set in motion by the team of six has only produced wasteful expenditure and corruption in the Municipality because there is consistent undermining of National Collective Agreements, relevant legislations and local collective agreements in all respect as indicated above.
SAMWU the largest Local Government Union has submitted a Memorandum of demands to the Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni on the 23rd February 2010 and to date we have not received any response to our memorandum.
The Mayor has only promised to attend to the issue of outsourcing of functions of the Municipality, we have since written to her to request that she provide details on how she was going to be dealing with the issue. We have also observed that she is not prepared to provide details or even to responds to our letter.
The non-response has forced us to assume that they want to outsource all services and later show pseudo-commitment to resolve the issue of outsourcing services. It will be pseudo-commitment because they would have already exhausted the Municipalities funds.
The Municipality is not interested in ensuring that the Local Labour Forum (LLF) is functioning properly, if the LLF was functioning properly then these issues of outsourcing of functions would have been discussed in the forum and the community would have been consulted.
This court process is part of a campaign, to ensure the Municipality is owned by the community. We will campaign until such time that the rights of the community & workers are respected. As for senior managers that have enforced outsourcing of services, without following relevant legislation and collective agreements; they should be dealt with and held accountable.
For further comment contact SAMWU’s Ekurhuleni Branch Secretary Koena Ramotlou on 073 254 9394
Issued by;
Tahir Sema.
South African Municipal Workers' Union of COSATU.
National Media and Publicity Officer.
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Office: 011-331 0333.
Cell: 0829403403.
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Worker's News April 2008 PART 1 (514)
