Ben Turok is locked in dispute with fired staff, reports Mungo Soggot
AFRICAN National Congress MP and economics guru Ben Turok has fired most of the staff at the NGO he runs, setting off an acrimonious labour relations wrangle.
Staff at the Institute for African Alternatives, who were supposed to leave at the end of this month, have already been locked out of the cash-strapped NGO’s Johannesburg headquarters.
Turok, MP for Paarl, also told staff they could lose their retrenchment pay if they fought him through the mediation body established under the new Labour Relations Act.
Institute staff complained to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration earlier this month that Turok had breached the new Act by not discussing the closure decision.
Employees say they are still in the dark about Turok’s plans. Shortly after the initial closure announcement, Turok suggested the institute could survive with severe cuts, and he has previously indicated the organisation should move to Paarl. He was unavailable for comment this week, despite repeated approaches.
Turok established the NGO in London in 1986 and opened offices in Johannesburg in 1991. The institute, which trains community leaders, is funded mainly by USAid, but has been struggling to raise new cash following senior staff changes.
Recent internal minutes show Turok complained he was unable to determine the NGO’s financial status, nor the progress of its projects.
Employees met Turok on November 11 to voice fears that their jobs were on the line as the NGO only had sufficient funds until next March. Staff say Turok assured them there was no immediate problem, asking one: ‘Why… are you insecure about losing your job?’
But a week later, all but four of the NGO’s employees were retrenched following a board meeting from which staff representatives were barred. Four employees were kept on to wind down the NGO’s affairs.
After staff started talking about breaches of the Act, the institute’s director, Myron Peter, said they could bring in a private mediator selected by management, provided staff paid his R2500 bill. The employees replied in a memorandum: ‘As all staff have been retrenched, how could you expect us to cover the costs of R2500?’ They added that they would approach the commission which would act ‘in the best interests of the organisation’.
The application to the commission ‘ which was faxed on December 10 ‘ accuses Turok of riding roughshod over the Act by ‘refusing to bargain around retrenchment’ and ‘refusing to discuss severance pay’.
The following day Turok returned from a meeting with USAid in Pretoria and reportedly attacked staff for approaching the commission, tagging them ‘tsotsis’.
‘I’m not afraid of the commission,’ he reportedly said. Unsigned minutes of the meeting quote him as saying: ‘I will liquidate, and maybe there won’t be December salaries or retrenchment packages.’ He gave staff 15 minutes to decide.
Facing the prospect of spending the festive season with no money, staff say they had to capitulate. Peter responded in a memo: ‘The board welcomes the decision to waive the conciliation process and try and remain open.’ Staff say they are now ‘baffled’.
Turok ‘ who helped frame both the Freedom Charter and the Reconstruction and Development Programme ‘ recently outlined in the Mail & Guardian a string of reasons behind the struggle for survival among NGOs.
These included the organisations ‘having a chronic incapacity to work together … NGOs often emerge around a particular personality, and individualism is a common feature. This tends to bring a lack of continuity as these individuals come and go.’