NELSON Mandela Bay as a whole gave a sigh of relief when Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) City Manager Johann Mettler announced the end of the industrial action after both municipal unions, Imatu and Samwu, signed an agreement on Friday, June 22.
“I would like to assure the residents that our Waste Management Directorate will work hard from this afternoon (June 22) to clean up our streets and suburbs that were inexorably rubbish-strewn due to the non-collection of household rubbish,” Mettler said.
“Unfortunately, our best efforts to implement contingency plans did not provide us with the desired outcome and it will require all hands on deck to ensure that both normal services resume and the backlog is wiped out.
“I would like to thank the residents of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality for allowing us the space to negotiate with the workforce during intense deliberations to, in the end, reach an outcome that will create stability and improved relations with our workforce.”
According to Mettler, NMBM agreed on a final settlement of R10 000 for employees with 12 to 17 years, R16 000 for employees with 18 to 23 years and R21 000 for those employees with service of 24 years and more.
“The agreed long-service bonuses are a final settlement that will be paid out after council approval has been obtained at a meeting that will take place no later than July 15.”
Some of the pertinent issues in the agreement are as follows:
- All security employees (458), who are currently employed on a contract basis, will be permanently employed by July 1, 2018, in terms of the council resolution.
- The locomotion, overtime and scarce skills policies will be further discussed at the Local Labour Forum.
- All unresolved issues relating to overtime will be resolved.
- The issue of prolonged suspensions will be further clarified with the unions.
- All employees currently participating in the industrial action will return to work on Monday (June 25) unless they are officially on duty over the weekend. The principle of no work, no pay will apply for the period when employees participated in the industrial action. However, the loss of income of employees will be recovered over four months.
Mettler thanked the employees who chose to work in trying circumstances and said he hoped that improved relations with employees would directly lead to improved service delivery.
