Cape Town - Frustrated census field workers have made complaints of delays and partial or non-payment after Stats SA experienced issues with paying the workers.
In a petition which has more than 1 000 signatures, petitioners are calling for Stats SA to treat the matter with urgency as field workers are in financial limbo as several workers have been waiting for payment since April.
The petition, which was started by Zakhele Nongalo, mentioned that from the first payments, a lot of employees were underpaid, and some were not paid at all. Given that counting started on February 2 and was expected to end towards March, workers were instructed to extend their contracts via the HR portal on the tablets provided to them.
Census field worker Mathapelo Ramalamola said that there was an extension because the census did not hire enough staff, and they were forced to work extra hours.
“The issue with salary for field workers is a national issue. Stats SA extended the months of enumeration since we couldn’t reach the number they wanted because we were short-staffed, and at some point, field workers went on a strike, and soon after, that some were paid. In the following months, there were issues with payment again, and to top it all off, they didn't even care about the safety of ladies in rough areas, which they are aware of. Now the project is over, they want their tablets back, yet they owe us a lot of money,” said Ramalamola.
With some field workers having lost hope of getting their money, Western Cape field workers were expected to get their money Tuesday.
Field worker Mariam Edwards said: “Working for Census has opened my mind to a lot of difficulties which we never thought we would experience. We had to go through a lot of difficulties with the Census 2022 project, such an incompetent government programme that has problems every time they have to pay their employees. I mean, they shouldn’t have any problem when it comes to payments because they run a big programme but still, after almost four months, there are people still not paid.
“How quick are they to forget? We had to walk in the hot sun, be chased by dogs, chased away by people, face racist people, go to the same house more than three times, working seven days a week, not one day off, just not getting paid? It was only now that you could get a day off, but in the beginning, we had to work seven days a week.
“They know people are desperate for work because life is tough and expensive. They are just one of the worst government programmes. I don't know in the next four years if they will be successful in finding workers to work for the programme because this was a traumatising experience,” said Edwards.
Commenting on the rights of the employees, labour law expert Michael Bagraim said that the employees need to take legal action immediately as contract workers have the same rights as permanent employees.
“The contract workers have exactly the same rights as permanent employees under the Labour Relations Act. All workers are governed by our Labour Legislation and our Constitution. The workers have a right to approach any of the civil courts, but it would be more useful to go directly to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration. The longer the workers leave it, the worse it becomes.
“In essence, government administration seems to be in a complete mess across the board. There is no excuse for the government to say that their administration is bad. If this was done in the private sector, the employees and or the trade unions would take immediate action. Petitions are good in that it brought the plight of the workers to the eyes of the media, but the petition will not result in payment. The employees need to take labour legal action immediately.
“Statistics SA is a vital institution for a whole lot of reasons. If the plight of the employees is properly described, then it is disgraceful for our government to handle the matter in this way. The employer is the tax collector, and hence, the issue with regard to income tax is not the employees problem. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act governs exactly how the employees should be paid and when. This appears to have been flouted by our government,” said Bagraim.
Stats SA spokesperson Trevor Oosterwyk said that StatsS A did not receive the petition and could not respond to what was sent to the media as they deal with Census payment issues within the organisation as per their contracts with workers.
“We can, however, confirm that the organisation experienced a number of difficulties with payment of census workers but have paid most of them, and we are dealing with the few outstanding payments. These will be resolved soon,” said Oosterwyk.