The cash strapped Gaborone City Council faces fresh pay controversy as 50 by-law officers resist being redeployed to the Council’s Sanitation Department before being given their outstanding pays.
The officers complain that they were not consulted before the decision was made: “We had come to work as usual when we started hearing rumours in the corridors that we were going to be redeployed to the sanitation department,” one officer told The Sunday Standard. “This rumour was then confirmed by the management who even set a date on when we should start reporting to the sanitation department.”
Another officer, who also complained about the lack of consultation, said GCC has a tendency to redeploy them without consulting first. He says in the past they were redeployed to the security branch of the Council after the Council failed to pay private security firms they had hired to guard Council properties in the City. The officer further alleged that they are still owed money for carrying out that work.
”Now they want to redeploy us to yet another department when they still owe us money from previous redeployments,” said the officer.
Yet another officer at the same place alleged that officials at the Ministry of Local Government denied any knowledge of the redeployment.
On what they intend to do now that the Council wants to redeploy them again, the officers said that they would like the Council to first consult them on the issue and tell them the truth on the matter before they can make decisions.
”This is a difficult issue, so we obviously want to know the truth before we can make decisions on what to do next,” he said.
Asked to comment on the issue, GCC clerk, Matenge, could only confirm that redeployment of staff is a normal thing in institutions.
“All I can say is that redeployment of officers is a normal thing and I have not heard any complaints about it,” he said.
This comes at a time the GCC is still locked in another dispute in which close to 200 men and women, employed by the GCC as temporary guards, are demanding their unpaid overtime pays.
The GCC Deputy Clerk, Ditlhogo Mmualefhe, has in the past confirmed that they were investigating the claims.
