The Durban CBD temporarily came to a standstill on Wednesday morning, 3 August, as Durban Solid Waste (DSW) employees marched to the city hall to meet with eThekwini Deputy Mayor, Philani Godfrey Mavundla, over “unfair overtime work delegations”. Driving their trucks slowly down Dr Pixley KaSeme Street, scores of workers embarked on a “go-slow”, demanding to know exactly how work will be fairly distributed.
Chairperson of the DSW Union, Phla Ngcobo, said that the union leadership was called for a meeting by the deputy mayor after he heard about their grievances. “Our main concern is that we feel there is no justice when distributing overtime work in the cluster we belong to which includes DSW, water and the electricity department. The overtime work needs to be distributed equally. There is no stoppage of work or strike. In the latest regard, we were told that the deputy mayor will meet with management and we will have an outcome by tomorrow (Thursday) at 7.30am.”
Deputy Mayor Mavundla met with the DSW workers outside the Durban City Hall and explained that some employees are working for DSW for many years with a guaranteed overtime rate.
“We had to look at what it is costing the ratepayers to keep people on this privilege and we took a decision that we will cut overtime by 50% and if there is an issue with vacancies, we should rather use that money to fill vacancies. This was effective from 1 July. We also want to take it a step further to see if these employees deserve to be working overtime or if they are just abusing the system.”
Deputy Mayor Mavundla stated that employees cannot demand overtime. “People have their contractual obligation. This is what we explained to the union. The city needs to save money. Our reserves have completely run dry already. We’ve listened to their grievances as we understand the job they have to do and will be in discussions with them,” said Deputy Mayor Mavundla.
