THE eThekwini Municipality management are expected to meet disgruntled staff today who set alight tyres and blocked the road leading to municipal departments outside the Durban Metro police headquarters on Wednesday.
Staff from the eThekwini Roads and Stormwater Department downed tools to highlight the dangers they faced while working alongside busy roads in the municipality.
The protest was after two meetings with management fell through.
The first was scheduled for Tuesday, and was moved to yesterday but was then cancelled when staff were expected to meet management at the Clairwood Depot.
According to the Independent Municipal Allied Trade Union (Imatu) deputy chairperson, Sbusiso Mtshali, staff wanted management to make considerations before deploying workers to projects.
“The problem that workers are concerned about is their safety. Management does not care. Management is supposed to assess the situation before teams have to embark on projects. Because this isn’t done, staff have had to work on roads at peak traffic hours which has led to some of them getting hit by cars, some have had life-altering injuries and some have died,” said Mtshali.
According to Mtshali, another issue was that staff were expected to meet mandated targets while operating with fewer people.
“There are fewer workers at the department and they have not been replaced. This may be due to Covid-19 reasons, but staff can’t be expected to deliver the same output with five people per team compared to 12, so work will have to be carried over to later hours, resulting in overtime.
“So, management has been pushing staff to squeeze in work into fewer hours and this is not ideal. By putting pressure on workers, management is trying to produce more output just because they won’t pay for overtime and in the process put workers in danger.”
Municipality spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela said interventions were being undertaken to address the issues.
"We have met the aggrieved parties. One of the issues they raised was the challenge they face when working on busy roads. They would prefer not to work in areas with a high traffic volume on weekends. The city condemns the burning of tyres, as well as any criminal acts committed during protests. Our employees are aware of the proper channels to lay out their grievances. They have been advised to return to work. Management has agreed to meet them to chart a way forward," Mayisela said.
Daily News