The Mercury reports that concern over rampant abuse of overtime in eThekwini Municipality’s Durban Solid Waste (DSW) unit has deepened following revelations that one employee claimed R50,000 in overtime pay after working 317 hours of overtime.
The unnamed employee, who is listed as a supervisor driver in the unit, is among 70 employees who have been listed as having claimed more than 200 hours of overtime in any single month. Another supervisor driver earned close to R43,000 after claiming 232 hours of overtime in one month. These revelations were made in eThekwini Municipality’s full council meeting last week in response to questions posed about widespread abuse of overtime pay in the unit. Details of employees “working” abnormal overtime hours exceeding 200 hours a month were provided. A report listed close to 70 people working as general assistants, drivers and other professions in the DSW unit who claimed more than R1.6 million in overtime in seven months between October last year and July this year. DA councillor Mzamo Billy questioned whether it was legal for municipal staff to work more than 200 hours each month and whether any action could be taken in light of allegations of abuse of overtime. The City responded that if employees worked excessive hours that had been approved by their supervisors and there was sufficient evidence (checks and balances), then such employees were paid their necessary overtime pay. It said employees were allowed to work 40 hours’ overtime in terms of legislation, however, notwithstanding that requirement, the unit was challenged with completing daily tasks with overtime. The unit said that corporate HR was undertaking an investigation into all employees who had worked excessive hours and added: “There is no evidence that shows that illegal overtime has taken place, however, if the investigations shows that there has been illegal overtime that information would be available to the public.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Thami Magubane at The Mercury
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