Johannesburg - At least 624 employees have initiated labour disputes against the Emfuleni municipality.
They are believed to be between level 2 and 6 job categories.
Municipality spokesperson Stanley Gaba has confirmed the cases are still ongoing at the Labour Court and no settlement has been made.
Gaba revealed the municipality might have to pay close to R200 million if things go against it at the Labour Court.
“However, it must be indicated the parties involved in this matter might enter into a settlement agreement that could see the municipality paying out much less than this amount,” he said
Gaba would not comment on the cause of the labour dispute and the municipality’s labour code of conduct towards these employees.
“While there is public interest in these matters, the rights of all employees involved must be respected, as part of the employer and employee relationship, agreements and disputes.
“The municipality must also respect substantive and procedural fairness when managing such disputes,” added Gaba.
In a written response to Kingsol Chabalala, the DA’s constituency head for Emfuleni in the provincial legislature, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile said four law firms were used for these disputes.
According to Maile’s response, the municipality spent more than R238m in 2016/17 when the matters were presented at the arbitration hearing.
The MEC said retrieving invoices for each case would be a tedious process as the municipality was not operating at full capacity.
Chabalala expressed concern over the millions being splurged on labour disputes.
“It is worrying that the employees are winning the labour dispute cases and large sums of money is being paid out by a municipality which is facing serious cash-flow problems.
“The DA calls on MEC Maile to investigate the reasons why this municipality is having continuous labour issues with its employees and to ascertain whether the proper labour legislation and code of conduct is followed to the tee,” he said.
Chabalala added that the municipality’s legal department should have been utilised instead of outsourcing.
Speaking at a recent media briefing, Maile weighed in on a forensic report which indicated some officials from the municipality were implicated in the looting of funds.
“The disciplinary board has conducted interviews with staff cited in the report; some are no longer in the employ of the municipality.
“Cases have been reported to the Hawks…
“The chairperson of the board requested source documents from the AGSA and forensic company to assist in their investigations.”
The Star