Census workers protest in Durban
DURBAN:311011 Census workers gathered outside Liberty Life building to raise their complains about sulary irregularities claiming that Officials have allegedly rob them half of their sulary. PICTURE:GCINA NDWALANE DURBAN:311011 Census workers gathered outside Liberty Life building to raise their complains about sulary irregularities claiming that Officials have allegedly rob them half of their sulary. PICTURE:GCINA NDWALANE
Census workers in Durban have protested outside their offices in Samora Machel (Aliwal) Street demanding that they receive the same pay as their colleagues in other provinces.
However, on Monday afternoon’s dispute appears to be the result of a misunderstanding and census authorities insist that all staff across the country will be getting the same pay.
On Monday Durban census workers threatened to burn the questionnaires they had already completed.
Monday marked the end of the 21 days set aside for distributing and filling out of questionnaires.
A field worker who asked not to be named said their contracts stated they would receive R5 000.
“In Johannesburg they are going to give their workers R10 000 and we want to know why we are only going to get paid half if we are doing the same job,” she said.
The strikers said the census was hard work over long hours and they were not taken care of properly.
“We were not even given water or food and yet we worked till the late hours of the night. For us as women walking all that distance, we were not safe at all.
“But we still gave the job our all despite the numerous challenges and we deserve that money,” said another angry protester.
The protesters said they did not want to fight, but if they were being robbed, they would stand up for themselves.
Some complained that they had been given too many homes to count and had not been able to finish them, saying it was a process that would take another two weeks to complete.
Another protester, who was working in the Molweni area, said they had spent much money on taxi fares doing their jobs and doubted they would be reimbursed.
“I think just because we are unemployed, our intelligence is being (under-estimated),” she said.
Trevor Oosterwyk, the national Stats SA spokesman, said it was unfortunate that the whole uncertainty about payments had been the result of an error in a newspaper article and that the paper had since published a retraction.
Oosterwyk assured all census workers that all workers countrywide would be getting paid the same salary.
“Field workers are getting R5 000 and supervisors and co-ordinators will be getting R7 500, as stipulated in their contracts. However, one can understand, under such hard times, why the workers reacted to this false information,” he said.
A management team had arrived in KZN on Monday to try and resolve the confusion, he said. - Daily News