Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Mr Roy Padayachie welcomes the Public Service Commission (PSC) report on the precautionary suspension of employees in the Public Service.
The Minister has noted that the issues of concern as raised in the report have been areas that have been identified by the Department for Public Service and Administration (DPSA) and that guided interventions have been put in place to address.
Discipline management procedures within the public service stipulate that all disciplinary cases be finalised within a period of 90 days. Cases on precautionary suspension, which is the suspension of employees with full pay need to be finalised within 60 days.
Following the 2010 State of the Nation Address pronouncement by President Jacob Zuma on the need to reduce the period in finalising precautionary suspensions to a minimum of 60 days, the DPSA has led a task team of Labour Relations Officers to provide guidelines in this regard.
The Delivery Agreement of the Minister for the Public Service and Administration therefore requires the review of disciplinary and poor performance framework and policies in the public service to reduce the time it takes to finalise disciplinary cases. Work is currently under way to ensure delivery through the development of a strategy to ensure that suspension with full pay is finalised within 60 days.
Activities by the task team to ensure the adherence to the management of all discipline cases is finalised within the 90 day period have included the development of precautionary suspension guidelines; sanctioning guides for the public service; a guide on reporting mechanisms on discipline matters; and public service wide training for Labour Relations Officers and investigators.
The guidelines have been developed and are been consulted for approval by Cabinet.
