Image: Gallo Images / Beeld / Cornel Van Heerden
The SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) on Wednesday accused municipalities of cheating workers out of their hard-earned money.
This follows the failure to pay workers their full salaries and on time in several municipalities. Samwu has also called for immediate payments, in full – and called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to ensure that municipalities are given a bigger chunk of the budget.
“Samwu … demands the immediate payment of all salaries of municipal workers that have not been paid yet. When workers go on strike, municipalities apply the no-work, no-pay principle. As a result workers are determined to apply the no-pay, no-work principle until such a time that their salaries reflects in their bank account,” said Koena Ramotlou, general secretary of the union.
The union said the lack of payments contributed negatively to the lives of workers, as they incurred unnecessary arrears.
“This, while third parties such as medical aid, funeral policies and pension funds are in arrears. Essentially, municipalities are cheating workers out of their hard-earned money, which is, by the way, too little to sustain their lives,” said Ramatlou.
The union said there were more than 30 municipalities in the country which indicated that they would not be able to honour their contractual obligations with workers by paying them on the 25th of the month.
Other municipalities said they would be paying only a portion of workers’ salaries.
Ramatlou said it was disturbing that workers at the Amahlathi local municipality had been informed by municipal management that they would not be getting salaries for June, and should expect to be paid only at the end of July.
“These are the very same workers who will go for two months working and be expected by the employer to continue going to work without receiving salaries,” he said.
The union said it had hoped that Ramaphosa – in his state of the nation address – would have prioritised municipalities and ensured they received a fairer deal .
