14th cheques must be recovered

EASTERN Cape municipalities that have already paid their workers a 14th cheque must find a way to recover all that money, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) said yesterday.

The employer body has written to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to establish if it paid its workforce of about 7000 the so-called 14th cheque, as doing so would go against the main collective agreement between Salga and municipal unions signed more than 10 years ago.

This comes after the metro gave all its staff a R6000 once-off payment in December in lieu of back pay, to which some staff would have been entitled with the implementation of the new job grading system, Task. Because the municipality has taken about eight years to implement Task, a large number of staff whose job descriptions and salaries have been upgraded would have had to be paid eight years' back pay.