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South Africa: Ekurhuleni Barred From Docking Wages
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
19 May 2008
Posted to the web 19 May 2008
Lebohang Thulo
Johannesburg
THE Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality will have to stop deducting money from the salaries of close to 8000 of its municipal employees after unions won an interim interdict in the Labour Court last week.
Shadow Shongwe, regional manager of Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union , which brought the action with the South African Municipal Workers Union , said the interdict, preventing the city from deducting payments from the salaries of workers who collectively owe close to R20m in rates and taxes, was a victory for the municipal workers .
However, he and other union members remained angered by the municipality's "fruitless expenditure" of what he said was a spiteful action against its employees.
André Schmidt, a lawyer for the unions, said he was pleased with the court's decision about a practice he said the municipality had been getting away with since October last year. Some employees had been going home with no salaries for months, and this should not have been allowed, he said.
"The municipality still has to follow the correct credit procedure; they can't unilaterally deduct money from someone's salary."
The conflict began when the municipality took a decision to deduct money from the salaries of employees who owed rates and taxes. The matter was taken to court when the parties could not reach agreement.
Shongwe said the municipality had approached the unions for further discussion but an agreement seemed unlikely.
"We don't trust Ekurhuleni in this regard."
Municipal spokesman Zweli Dlamini said the deductions would be stopped and the matter referred back to the local labour forum.
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He said the municipality had not yet reached a decision about whether it would appeal against the Labour Court's decision.
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