OPPOSITION parties in the Western Cape have taken MEC Nomafrench Mbombo to task over the plight of outsourced hospital staff who are allegedly being exploited by private companies.
On Thursday, Mbombo responded to questions from the EFF’s Melikhaya Xego during a sitting of the Legislature on whether the plight of porters who were being “financially exploited” by agencies contracted by health institutions had been brought to her attention.
Mbombo said they were made aware of “isolated allegations” by porters at Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH), who staged a protest.
“The department is not involved in labour disputes between contracted providers and their staff. The protest at GSH was related to the transfer of staff from the previous service provider to the one that was awarded the new contract,” she said.
“In the previous contracts, the personnel was simply transferred from the old service provider to the new service provider. Hence, a number of porters have been working at the hospital for more than 20 years, irrespective of the contractor.
“Unfortunately for this particular one, the contractor did not use those ones. Instead, they brought in about 100 new workers to fulfil their contractual obligation with the hospital.”
Xego said this matter was brought to the department’s attention earlier this year after they were approached by porters, but they did not get a satisfactory response.
“The contractual agreements between the department and the service providers (workers) are not getting in terms of salary what has been agreed upon. This leaves them with slave wages in their hands,” he said.
The ANC’s Rachel Windvogel accused the department of being captured by the agencies.
She said the challenges with the over-reliance on the agencies were laid bare during an oversight visit to the Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain District Hospitals.
“Not only are these agency personnel expensive as they cost almost double the cost of employing a permanent staff member, but they also present serious challenges for management as they are accountable to their agencies and not the hospital,” Windvogel said.
She argued that agencies were also a headache for hospital management.
“We reiterate our calls for the department to employ permanent staff and end its over-reliance on agency personnel.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the exploitation of health workers in hospitals and demand an urgent intervention by the department and MEC.”
Weekend Argus