CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
Worker fights state deductions without notice
The Public Service Association wants law changed to allow for consultations ahead of deductions by the state
Public sector workers would be unburdened from financial distress if the Constitutional Court invalidated a section of the Public Service Act that allowed the state to deduct incorrect payments from employees accounts without prior notice. This is the argument put forward by the Public Service Association before the highest court in the country. One of the association’s members petitioned the court to have the section reformulated to make it mandatory for the state to consult workers and reach an agreement on repayments before deductions are made. Arguments from both sides were heard on Thursday. Olufunmilayo Ubogu, the applicant in this particular case, challenged the constitutionality of section 38(2)(b)(i) of the act successfully in the Labour Court, which ruled in his favour in 2016. Ubogu, a clinical manager at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital, was overpaid about R794,000 after her pay was mistakenly hiked, according to the Gauteng health department. The department only reali...
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