Johannesburg - Labour union, the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) have vowed to launch separate action to block the City of Joburg from sacking 130 former ANC political staffers.
Addressing the media, Samwu Joburg regional chairperson Ester Mtatyana said the union was going to take the City of Joburg to the local government bargaining council to stop the pending sacking.
Mtatyana also said that they were consulting with their lawyers with the aim of challenging the pending dismissals in a court of law.
“The attacks by Councillor (Mpho) Phalatse come after the multiparty City of Johannesburg Council took an illegal and unlawful decision to terminate the employment contract of 130 employees, alleging that these employees’ contracts of employment were converted irregularly.
“After the council meeting, the workers were furnished with letters from the Office of the City Manager wherein they were requested to make representation on how their ’irregular appointments’ should be regularised.
“It is public knowledge that the contracts of employment of these employees were converted in March 2021, following the advertisements of the vacancies and the rigorous interview processes.
“It is therefore unfortunate that the City has decided that these employees are political appointees and as such decided to terminate their contracts of employment without following any due process let alone terminate the contracts on the basis of misconduct, insubordination or dereliction of duty,” Mtatyana said.
She said the employees have legal and binding contracts of employment that could not be unilaterally terminated without valid reasons.
Mtatyana said these employees have not committed any acts that sought to undermine the smooth running of the administration.
“The City has failed to give these employees an opportunity to be moved to other departments given the fact that they do not want to work with them anymore.
“The council is not an employer of these employees and as such it cannot dismiss them, their conditions of employment are dealt with by the administration and not council.
“The council is only responsible for Section 56 & 57 employees which are municipal managers and those who report directly to them,” she said.
Mtatyana said there has been no consultation with the unions who are representatives of these employees, adding that employees were asked by the City to make representation on why their contracts should not be terminated.
“It is the City that should be making a case on why there should be termination of employment, following a disciplinary hearing.
“There has been no disciplinary hearings that has been conducted against these employees.
The City alleges that these employees have been employed by the previous ANC administration along political lines yet there are employees from various political parties who have received these letters.
“More importantly, these employees did not employ themselves nor did they convert their own contracts of employment,” Mtatyana said.
Meanwhile, Sanco was planning a shutdown of services at the City of Joburg council building on March 25. The civic movement will organise all its members to execute the shutdown.
Political Bureau