Home Affairs offices may close on Saturdays as staff are no longer paid overtime
Union Nupsaw is protesting against the end to overtime pay, but the department says financial constraints means it is ‘no longer financially sustainable’
The Department of Home Affairs is locked in an overtime pay dispute with unions, which could result in it scrapping Saturdays as part of its service offering. Department director-general Mkuseli Apleni said on Thursday that there appeared to be no end in sight to the deadlock, as the National Union of Public Service and Allied Workers (Nupsaw) was preparing to picket over the issue on Friday. "This dispute emanates from a [2015] instruction by the Cabinet to open frontline offices on Saturdays. When the new system of working on Saturdays was introduced, officials were paid overtime. However, due to the department’s financial constraints, payment of overtime … was no longer financially sustainable," said Apleni. The dispute arose when officials were no longer paid for overtime as a result, and a new operational shift system was introduced, he said. The issue has played out at the General Public Service Sectoral Bargaining Council, the Labour Court and the Labour Appeal Court, and now...
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