Rehana Rossouw
Nine employees of the department of trade and industry (DTI), who haven’t worked for four months, have begun legal action for severance pay until March 1997.
The four have refused to be transferred from Cape Town to Pretoria. They were involved in a DTI business project which has now ground to a halt because of staff disputes.
The staff’s action has cost close to R1-million in salaries paid to them and in duplication of office rental, while the project, the Business Development Service (BuDS), flounders.
The DTI established the Ntsika Enterprise Promotion Agency (Nepa) last year to support non-financial entrepreneurial services. BuDS was supposed to fund local business service centres to train entrepreneurs.
Since its inception, the project has been hit by staff disputes. It has had three directors, and more than 80 applications from business centres have not been processed as the staff refuses to co-operate with an acting director employed last month.
Most of the BuDS staff were employed in December last year, recruited at a cost of R100 000. They were all Cape Town residents, but their contracts stipulated that should the offices be relocated, such a decision would be negotiated with them six months before.
In February, barely two months after the staff were employed, they were informed the Cape Town offices would be closed and the entire project moved to Pretoria.
“Despite your undertaking, you have unilaterally taken steps to proceed with the relocation with effect from the end of July 1996. No negotiation with regard to the decision to relocate has taken place,” said a letter from the staff’s lawyers.
The staff have also complained their job descriptions were altered without their being informed. Two new staffers appointed recently have been given the same job descriptions as existing staff.
They have refused to co-operate with acting director Themba Basiwe. The staff have locked away all files relating to BuDS operations.
Their lawyer’s letter said they were prepared to tender their resignations, effective July 31, if they received severance pay totalling their salaries up to March 1997, the initial date set for the relocation to Pretoria. Nepa was given until last Friday to respond to the letter.
DTI’s chief director of small business promotion Dr Alistair Ruiters did not respond to requests for comment on the legal action.
Nepa’s director Dr Anton Balasuriya said he had ceased to be responsible for the project since July 8.