The branch’s Secretary Koena Ramotlou said on Monday that the council had spent over R517 million, as estimated in February, on outsourcing services.
On Friday last week Samwu headed to the South Gauteng High Court in a bid to freeze all tenders awarded during the tenure of a provincial task team that was set up to clean up operations in the council last year.
Ramotlou said the union was pleased by the court’s finding that ordered the council to return to the bargaining council.
The council’s Labour Relations Director Bafana Nzimande trashed this, saying they had been more than willing to sit down with Samwu to disccuss the issue. He turned the tables on Ramotlou’s claims, saying it was Samwu who had been resisting bargaining.
The council has 30 days to respond to the court action. The affected services in the court application are refuse removal, legal services, municipal court services, waste removal and road works.
Nzimande said it was necessary to outsource certain services when a gap in their departments necessitated it like lawyers to resolve complicated disputes like forensic audits and electricity when they needed more supply. He said as of 1 July internal disputes like disciplinary hearings would be dealt with by managers.
Ramotlou also called for the council’s call centre to be scrapped, saying it was ineffective and frustratingly slow. He wants residents’ needs to be serviced immediately.
He said an obvious problem with outsourcing services was the result on permanent staff members hired specifically to fill these needs but were being sidelined.
Source:http://www.jacarandafm.com/kagiso/content/en/jacaranda/jacaranda-news?oid=833926&sn=Detail&pid=6182&Samwu-wants-council-to-abandon-outsourcing-services
