Overtime impasse must be resolved

THE standoff between the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and some staff who refuse to work at weekends without extra compensation will have to be resolved or residents will continue to pay the price.

Taps in several parts of the city ran dry at the weekend, predictably eliciting frustration and anger among many residents.

Those who faithfully settle their rates month in, month out will necessarily become annoyed when services they have paid for are not being delivered – especially considering there is already much bitterness about the recent valuations-linked rates increases.

The city’s poorer communities, equally, have every right to water access.

But if, as mayor Athol Trollip suspects, the municipality’s overtime policy has indeed been exploited for some years now by certain staff, this also cannot be allowed to continue.

This city simply does not have bottomless coffers and the taps have to be tightened, figuratively speaking of course, to prevent irregular and unnecessary expenditure of this nature.

The fact that the municipality has already spent 30% of its overtime budget in the first two months of the current financial year does raise red flags.

The possibility of sabotage, possibly by staff who feel they’ve been shortchanged since the introduction last week of the revised overtime policy, is yet another headache for Trollip and company.

Investigations are under way as to why a valve in Govan Mbeki Township was found to have been shut off at the weekend and, looking ahead to the coming weekend, the municipality says it will be making contingency plans.

This could see striking staff missing out altogether on weekend pay as private contractors will be brought in to attend to leaks and the like. Tankers supplied by private contractors will also be on standby.

While Trollip’s refusal to be held to ransom by striking staff is creditable, he will need to find a way to solve the impasse or risk vexing ratepayers – including the very ones who helped vote the DA into power last year – even further.