NATIONAL Treasury staff based at its head office in the Tshwane central business district (CBD) are to be relocated to a temporary site by March next year, following complaints by workers and unions.
The Public Servants Association (PSA), which has campaigned for Treasury staff to be moved from its office on 40 Church Square – known as the Old Reserve Bank Building, told its members that they would be moving to new office accommodation.
According to the PSA, Treasury reported that the planned site viewing initially expected to take place in June this year was postponed due to operational reasons.
“A new date for the site viewing will be scheduled, which will also delay the bidding process. The successful bidder is now expected to be announced in September 2024,” the union stated.
In the interim, the employer plans to relocate to a temporary site by March 2025 and the PSA has requested a roadmap of the process to be shared with a task team set up to deal with the matter.“
The union has complained about the malfunctioning air conditioning system and water leakages, among other problems.
Last year, the Treasury reported that most employees at that building were either working from home or had been temporarily relocated to 240 Madiba Street, with the majority of employees left in the building being those attached to the ministry or the director-general’s office after their offices were renovated.
In October last year, the Treasury informed the departmental bargaining chamber that its executive committee had made a significant decision regarding working conditions at the 40 Church Square building.
”Instead of opting for renovations at the current location, the employer has decided to relocate employees to another building. The employer further reported that this decision was made because renovating the existing structure is not cost-effective,” the PSA told its members.
The Treasury believed that moving to a new building would offer a more sustainable solution to workplace needs, and the PSA expressed concerns about the need for meaningful consultation before relocation to a new building takes place.
In August 2021 in the bargaining council, a deadlock was reached on the working conditions at 40 Church Square after labour raised concerns about the state of the building.
Public servants employed by the Gauteng department of e-government at Imbumba House on Fox Street in the Johannesburg CBD began moving following complaints from trade unions representing them about the condition of the building in September last year.
They left the unsafe workplace after they were told to abandon their stations and continued to work virtually following a decision to declare their downtown Johannesburg head office unfit for them to operate from.
The reasons cited included health and safety concerns, and the remedial work that was currently taking place in the building to address those issues.