Samwu members march over grievances in eThekwini, demand apology from mayor for calling workers lazy
Durban - Members of the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) are demanding an apology from eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda for calling City workers lazy.
Kaunda has in statements to the media lamented the productivity of workers.
Yesterday, dozens of Samwu members who are employed by the City marched from Curries Fountain to the Durban City Hall to hand over a memorandum.
The union said their members were tired of their grievances being ignored and said they were being forced to work under poor conditions.
Apart from the request for an apology from the mayor, the other issues raised in the memorandum included a call for the municipality to provide security to the workplace to protect employees from hijackings and senseless killings, equal payment of performance bonus incentives, provision of tools of trade and vehicles, and in-sourcing of entities, including the Durban ICC and uShaka Marine World and workers in the Expanded Public Works Programme.
The union also wants clarity on the in-sourcing of security personnel, which was announced recently, and appointments in senior management.
It also wants municipal buildings in disrepair to be refurbished and for the danger allowance payment to be implemented.
Xolani Dube, Samwu leader in Durban, said they had engaged numerous times with their employer, but there had not been any positive feedback.
“The reason we have decided to bring the memorandum to the City is that we feel that we have been ignored for far too long and we need to have our issues addressed. We demand that mayor Mxolisi Kaunda send out an apology as he called us lazy, while he and his department have decided to make our working conditions hard.
“The city manager had an increase of over 60% in his salary when we can not even reach 5%.
“There have been so many cuts done by the City, including of our overtime allowances, which just last week we had cut and some received half of those allowances. This is not acceptable and we demand a response within 14 days from the mayor and premier,’’ he said.
The memorandum was accepted on behalf of the mayor.