A FORMER senior Gauteng provincial government official who was tossed between three MECs and then fired a year ago must be paid about R730 000 after her dismissal was found to have been unfair.
Mpolokeng Parkies joined the provincial Economic Development Department as a technical specialist in July 2019 on a five-year contract until May 31, 2024, as part of staff members in then MEC Kgosientsho Ramokgopa’s office.
She remained in Ramokgopa’s office after he joined the Presidency in October 2019, when Morakane Mosupye replaced him as MEC.
Evidence presented at the General Public Service Sector Bargaining Council (GPSSBC) shows that when Mosupye left in November 2020 and was replaced by Parks Tau the following month, Parkies remained in the MEC’s office.
Tau was opposed to the termination of Parkies’ contract since it was linked to the term of office of his predecessor.
Instead, he wanted Parkies to be given an opportunity to apply for other positions in government departments.
There had also been another earlier arrangement between Ramokgopa and Mosupye for Parkies to be retained.
She was eventually moved from the MEC’s office and absorbed in the department as her position was required for someone else.
Her benefits were reduced as she lost out on a personal non-pensionable allowance of more than R7 000 a month as it is paid only while she was working in the MEC’s office.
The bargaining council heard from the department that Parkies’ contract should have been terminated when Ramokgopa moved in November 2019, but officials decided to be generous and good to her and there was an arrangement between political principals as they came in and left.
According to the department, there was no written contract for Parkies to be kept, only a verbal agreement.
Parkies testified at the bargaining council that her understanding was that her appointment would end in May next year since her contract did not state any particular MEC and she believed that she would stay until the end of the full five-year term.
In addition, she said her contract did not stipulate that it was linked to Ramokgopa’s term of office and would be terminated once he left.
On August 22 last year, Parkies was informed that her contract would be terminated at the end of that month.
She approached the bargaining council to have the termination of her contract declared an unfair dismissal and for her to be reinstated in her position in the department.
GPSSBC arbitrator advocate Seeng Letele ruled in Parkies’ favour on August 7 to a certain extent, according to the written award.
”I am persuaded to believe that the applicant (Parkies) was clearly promised in the respondent’s department and would have been absorbed had the Cabinet reshuffle not happened and she fell from grace. Unilateral change of conditions of employment is unfair,” reads the award.
Letele found that it was not proper and unfair for the department to promise to absorb Parkies and then terminate her contract that gave her security of employment until May next year.
Letele said she could not order Parkies’ reinstatement as she was not yet holding a permanent position when Tau became MEC and that conditions changed at the department.
”I find that it was procedurally unfair of the respondent (the department) not to give the applicant (Parkies) an opportunity to be heard before the premature termination of her contract and also to give her less than one month’s notice of termination of employment,” added Letele.
She also found Parkies’ dismissal substantively unfair as it was not based on any fair reason.
Parkies was awarded one month’s salary for the procedural unfairness of the termination of her contract and six months’ compensation for substantive unfairness.
At the time of her dismissal she earned just under R1.25 million a year. The GPSSBC ordered that she be paid nearly R727 000 for the unfair dismissal within 10 days.
The department’s spokesperson, Bongiwe Gambu, did not respond to questions on whether Letele’s award would be complied with or challenged.
loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za