Large parts of Nelson Mandela Bay, particularly Motherwell, were in the dark for several days because electricity faults had not been attended to due to a labour dispute between workers and management over the city’s decision to stop paying a scarce-skills allowance.
The dispute is not a new one; it is a matter that crops up every few years as the municipality tries to do away with paying a scarce-skills allowance for electricity workers, and the workers refuse to accept the decision.
The municipality introduced a 10% scarce skills allowance in 2008 to retain and attract skills, particularly artisans, technicians, technologists in engineering, doctors, pharmacists and nurses.
When the allowance was implemented, all staff at the time received it.
In December 2013, and with a view of properly regulating the issue of the allowance, the city entered in a collective agreement with the unions on the implementation of a new job grading system, referred to as the TASK (Tuned Assessment of Skills and Knowledge) grading system.
No staff hired after December 2013 would then receive scarce skills allowances and the plan was to pay the older staff for a set period of time, with an end date, and work on a plan to ensure they were not left worse off.
The municipality also did not have a scarce-skills policy in place, which continued to be a bone of contention.
Fast forward to about 10 years and the municipality is fighting the same battle.
On June 28, the Bay’s executive director for corporate services, Nosipho Xego, told workers about the decision to cut the scarce-skills payments due to the city’s precarious financial position.
She gave three months’ notice of termination of the allowance, the deadline of which was September 30.
While we understand efforts to trim the city’s spending, it is a difficult pill to swallow for workers when it is suddenly taken away, especially for those who have been receiving the allowance for more than 12 years.
Our hope is that the powers-that-be will do all they can, within the law, to resolve this impasse and ensure municipal employees get back to work.
Residents deserve better services and cannot be hamstrung by unresolved labour disputes which have the potential to bring the city to its knees.
HeraldLIVE
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