Unhappiness over travel claim policy

Municipal workers are up in arms after being told some of their travel claims would not be paid.

They claim the unions entered into an agreement with the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality not to pay claims over 2,000km a month without first consulting them.

Last month, Bay municipal workers belonging to the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) held a weeklong strike over long-service bonuses that cost the municipality R44m.

The unions’ memorandum of grievances included “locomotion” [transport] allowance – they wanted the municipality to set aside the existing policy and adopt a clearer policy under which all workers using their own vehicles could claim for fuel.

A human settlements department worker, who did not want to be named, said the municipality alerted them by e-mail and phone calls last week that they now had a 2,000km cap on travel claims.

“I have claimed for 2,600km and prior to this, I didn’t know they had a cap.

“Every day I’m given a list of informal settlements I have to patrol and have a target to meet each week.

“I’m not going to do my job effectively if I worry about not getting my money back at the end of the month,” the worker said.

Another worker from the same department in Uitenhage said as far as he understood, the unions still had to have a meeting with the municipality on the travel allowance policy.

“Our unions had to tell us what the municipality’s offer on the locomotion allowance was, and not [make] an agreement without consulting us.

“On Thursday, I got a call from payroll saying we [would not] be paid for all our travel claims, which is not right.”

Another worker from the same department complained about not being consulted before the municipality changed its travel allowance policy.

“Every week I fill my car up because I know I’ll be paid back my money at the end of the month.

“I feel the unions and the human resources department let us down.”

On Monday, the municipality and both unions met to discuss the policy.

Samwu regional chair Mqondisi Nodongwe said the workers were aware of the policy to an extent.

“The employer does not have a problem paying out the claims as long as there’s motivation by the executive director,” he said.

Another problem that arose last week was that workers were told to produce proof of ownership of the vehicles they used, but Nodongwe said this was resolved at Monday’s meeting.

“We agreed [that] a letter [would be] written to the municipal manager to deviate from this decision.”