Durban - One employee in the Durban Solid Waste (DSW) unit managed to triple his salary when he claimed more than 208 hours of overtime pay in one month.
The 208 hours the official, who is a general worker, claimed to have worked were above his normal working hours of 160 hours a month. With these hours, the official, who earns a general salary of about R10 000 a month, saw his salary go up by an extra R20 000.
“It is illegal to work such hours, the law dictates that the person must work 40 hours in overtime per month,” said deputy mayor Philani Mavundla.
He was speaking to The Mercury following a go-slow by DSW workers in the collections and sweeping unit, after a policy to limit the amount of overtime that could be claimed came into effect earlier this month.
The workers went back to work after they reached an agreement with the city that allowed them to work the 32 hours of overtime they had been working before the policy came into effect.
This raised concerns that the city had backtracked on its policy to cut the overtime budget by 50%. But Mavundla said the city’s policy on cutting the overtime budget by 50% was still in effect and the city had not backtracked.
He said the budget would be reduced by 50% and the savings would be achieved through clamping down on abuse of overtime.
“We have a fellow in the DSW unit who had worked these 208 hours, it’s physically impossible to work these hours. There are 24 hours in a day, if this fellow has worked 208 hours on top of his 160 hours a month, when does the person rest, go home, how long does it take them to go home and come to work?” questioned Mavundla.
He said he was aware of another case where a worker earned more than R30 000 in overtime pay in one month, adding: “We could hire more people with that salary.”
He said he would send a report to the council detailing concerns about overtime abuse, adding that the assessment to date was that in DSW, there were more than 900 people working more than 40 hours of overtime a month.
He said it was such cases that consumed about 75% of the unit’s overtime budget.
Mavundla also clarified the agreement reached with the unions.
He said the DSW employees worked a legitimate 32 hours of overtime earned by working two weekends a month, which makes up the 32 hours.
“These are not the workers we are concerned about. It is the workers who are milking the system who are being targeted by the policy. I believe if we target these areas, we will achieve the cuts we are seeking on overtime,” he said.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said there was not just one department abusing overtime.
“The overtime is created by the fact that there is a staff shortage and we have said to the different heads of departments they should address the vacancies,” he said.
DA councillor Mzamo Billy said previous monthly DSW performance reports had said it was possible that overtime was being abused.
“It’s the system that’s completely broken. It’s poor management, lack of accountability and constant interference of unions and the ANC politicians.
“No employee would claim for so many hours if there was any accountability and proper management,” he said.
Patrick Pillay of the Democratic Liberal Congress said the city manager must clamp down on overtime abusers and conduct an investigation on high-end overtime claimants.
“There seems to be a culture whereby certain employees will relax in their jobs during normal working hours, just to work overtime. DSW is not performing at an optimum level,” he said.