The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will have to fork out R44.9-million in long-service bonus payments after the council endorsed the agreement between unions and the municipality on Friday.
The municipality is expected to pay the once-off payments by Sunday, as per the settlement agreement signed last month.
The agreement follows a week-long municipal strike last month which saw services halted across the city. The council agreed to pay workers long-service bonuses as follows: 12-17 years – R10,000, 18-23 years – R16,000, and 24 years and above - R21,000.
The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) on Friday said they welcomed the council decision.
A report presented by city manager Johann Mettler to the council on Friday warned that the once-off payments to 2,485 employees had not been budgeted for and would have a knock-on effect on the municipality’s financial position.
Mettler warned that due to the city’s under-collection of revenue the projected deficit was at R239m, excluding the R44.9m to be paid on long-service bonuses.
In his report, Mettler also instructed various departments in the municipality to identify savings within the 2017/18 operating budget or else prepare reports to the municipal public accounts committee, explaining the expenditure incurred.The council agreed on Friday to rescind a previous council decision that the municipality could not afford to pay the long-service bonuses.
Some opposition parties blamed the DA and its coalition partners on Friday for the municipal workers’ strike, claiming it could have been prevented had Mettler attended local labour forum meetings.
But mayor Athol Trollip said the strike had been the result of a decade-long impasse.
“Despite some of the aspersions that have been cast on this administration by certain individuals, this coalition administration has actually been able to solve an impasse that has been decades in the making. It didn’t start in 2016,” Trollip said.
Trollip said the strike did not reflect well on some municipal workers.
“The intimidation and destruction of property is something that should not be tolerated and we hope it is something we will not see again,” he said.
Samwu regional secretary Mqondisi Nodongwe said Friday’s decision was a victory for workers.
“As workers we are happy. This is what we fought for. We are happy that all parties supported this item and that their decision has been rescinded and that our money is going to be paid.”
Nodongwe said the union expected the money to be in employee accounts by Monday.
“The agreement says that the money must be paid by the 15th of July.”
Nodongwe denied that there was any destruction to property during the strike.
“From our side we never vandalised, we never intimidated anyone – if that was the case then surely some of us would be in jail because police were there. The mayor is entitled to his view,” Nodongwe said.
Imatu branch chair Anthony Gallant also said it welcomed the decision.
“As Imatu we are glad that the issue has come to some conclusion. The negotiations have been extremely tiring, but we are glad that we have found some sort of resolution to this,” he said.