OFFICE MANAGERS WANT DANGER PAY

Workers exposed to deadly infections excluded

SENIOR government officials have been added to the state’s danger allowance scheme but unions representing public servants have reacted angrily to acting public service and administration minister Nathi Mthethwa’s decision to do so.

Mthethwa amended the resolution concluded in May after the wage negotiations between the government and the unions at the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC).

“Following the conclusion of PSCBC resolution four of 2015, Mthethwa subsequently amended the determination and directive on danger allowance and that the determination (now) applies to the senior management service (SMS),” reads a letter, dated June 15 2015, sent by public service and administration director-general Mashwahle Diphofa to all heads of national and provincial government departments.

But Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) second deputy president Thandeka Msibi said Mthethwa was wrong to extend the danger allowance to SMS members – directors, chief directors, deputy directors-general and directors-general.

Msibi said SMS members were administrators who did not face the same risks as the public servants doing the actual work.

She said the PSCBC talks only catered for levels one to 12 and not for senior managers.

Sizwe Pamla, a spokesman for the largest public service union, Nehawu, said he needed to consult on the matter but found it strange as low-paid public servants do not get the perks their bosses get.

Danger allowance, which is between R379 and R567 a month depending on the danger, is paid to public servants facing genuine risk to their lives during the course of their work. The daily rate is less than R13.

While all SMS members now qualify for this allowance, they will have to first make a special application, through their departments, to claim.

Mthethwa also confirmed that workers dealing with highly contagious and deadly diseases have been excluded from the government ’ s danger-allowance scheme.

The decision to exclude workers at laboratories like the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) was taken because they fall out of the PSCBC’s ambit. The decision was taken during the wage talks.

According to the NICD, the workers are based at its BSL4 – the only bio-safety level-four laboratory in Africa – the highest security status for a laboratory and provides a safe environment for scientists to work with dangerous bio-hazardous materials and pathogenic organisms such as Congo fever, rabies, Lassa fever, the ebola virus and other viral haemorrhagic fevers.

“Only four people are allowed to work in a BSL4 lab. Scientists have to use specialised personal protective equipment in the form of an allenclosing air-tight bio-safety suit, that has to be connected to an external breathing air supply and is also decontaminated by a chemical shower before the worker exits,” said the NICD’s Nombuso Shabalala.

Shabalala said a fifth person who must always be present is the biosafety technical engineer, who monitors air pressure and helps with the chemical showers for decontamination.

Public service and administration’s Dumisani Nkwamba denied Mthethwa had unilaterally amended the resolution or extended this allowance to SMS members.

“Allowance is paid to those facing genuine risk