MEC changing tune on contracts – union

MORE than 130 Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers will join the ranks of the unemployed in the Northern Cape after the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture failed to withdraw termination letters, despite Nehawu’s claim that the department had agreed to do so.

The workers were issued with notices in August this year, which stated that their last day of employment at the department would be September 31, 2017.

According to Nehawu, an agreement was reached between the union and the MEC for the department, Bongiwe Mbinqo-Gigaba, in which the union agreed to stop picketing at the department’s head office on condition that the workers were reinstated.

“We held a meeting with the MEC where it was agreed that we will discontinue our pickets should the department withdraw the termination letters. The MEC, however, is now changing her tune. There are now 134 EPWP workers in the department who are facing unemployment,” said the acting deputy chairperson of Nehawu in the Frances Baard region, Isaac Shuping, yesterday.

“Some of these employees have been working for the department for the past seven years, while others have been working here for almost a decade. How are they going to care for their families and responsibilities without jobs?”

Nehawu alleged that the main reason behind the termination of the contracts was that the MEC wanted to appoint family and friends.

“There are currently people who are taking their CVs to the department to be employed in these posts. Some are already bragging that they will start work on Monday, even though there have been no interviews or shortlists compiled. This shows that friends and family of those in decision-making positions have already been selected to replace those whose contracts were terminated,” said Shuping.

Calling

He added that they had been calling on the department to employ the EPWP workers in the posts, where some were holding acting positions.

“There are about 70 vacant funded posts in the department. The department employed some of the EPWP workers to act in those positions but never appointed them permanently.

“When we raised this issue with the department, it said the posts first needed to be advertised.

“According to the department, these posts should have been advertised in April but they were not. Yet the employees who were assigned to these posts were expected to do the required work but were paid according to the salary of EPWP employees,” he said.

The branch chairperson of Nehawu in the department, Victor Modise, accused the MEC of forgetting the plight of those who had supported her.

“The MEC is the chairperson of the ANC Youth League and these employees are youth, who will now add to the high rate of unemployment in the Province. The MEC forgets that these youth members are the ones who fought for her to be in office and now she is turning her back on them.”

Department spokesperson, Conrad Fortune, said the department had to relieve the workers of their duties as their contracts were ending.

“The Department of Sport, Arts and Culture would like to state categorically that, unfortunately, the services of the current EPWP workers employed within the department, will end on September 30, 2017.

“The termination of the said contracts is based on the EPWP Ministerial Guidelines, which stipulates six months’ temporary employment.

“It therefore means that the current EPWP workers in the department will exit the system in order to make way for the new intake. In this regard, the department, headed by MEC Mbinqo-Gigaba, had meetings with the branch executive committee of Nehawu last month to discuss this issue.

“It is unfortunate that the union has resorted to industrial action.

“The MEC, on behalf of the entire staff and the department, would like to take this opportunity to thank all the EPWP workers for the service they rendered to change the lives of the people of the Northern Cape for the better,” said Fortune.