President and Executive of Denosa,
Programme Director,
Nurses,
Ladies and gentlemen.
I was asked at the launch of the Service Charter on 29 August 2013 to be here today to join you to celebrate the momentous occasion of the second birthday of the South African Nurses’ Conference. I did not hesitate to accept, for a number of reasons, which I will elaborate on.
First, I wanted to personally thank you for giving your representatives the mandate to sign off on a historic wage agreement in 2012. This has allowed us together, to create the space we now have to deal with other matters that impact on the work environment, the delivery of services and the general morale of all in the public sector.
This is a much needed, continuous engagement within normal circumstances, such as today, where you can talk directly to us – ask questions and get direct answers. Out of this we are both able to concentrate on building and creating the best for our people.
Before we signed the wage agreement, I had the hardest time from Denosa. Your representatives were uncompromising and possibly the meanest. Oddly, she was the only woman in the delegation and there was no empathy in her eyes.
While we are locked in negotiations and in a burst of anger she says “but what is wrong with this government! In the middle of negotiations they change Ministers and of all the Ministers, they bring you!!” What could I say? “Well, because this government cares!”
Fast forward and one year later we meet to sign the Service Charter and to my utter amazement, the first to sign is Denosa. I could not resist the temptation to ask why the willingness to sign and I got the simplest, most disarming answer. This is what Denosa said on all your behalf: “because we care.”
That was so fitting an answer, not only because it was true, but because it so aptly captures the essence of everything that is good in human kind – the ability to care. That is what makes nursing such a unique and demanding profession - that obligation to care.
To both of us, the irony of the fact that our answers to different situations had been identical had been lost to us, primarily because this is something we take for granted. Its importance is almost lost to us. We are grateful that you exist to care and such occasions allow us to express our gratitude.
We launched the Public Service Charter with a fervent intent to professionalise and encourage excellence in the public service and to improve service delivery programmes.
The adoption of a Service Charter outlining the commitment of the state, public servants and the citizenry is a necessary historic collaborative effort that will build a foundation that will ensure the rendering of quality services. It will also ensure that the public service is professionalised, trained, capacitated, effective, efficient and development-oriented.
The National Planning Commission (NPC) points out to significant areas for attention by the public service. One of the observations of the NPC is that South Africa has a progressive constitution, and a body of laws designed to protect and advance citizen's rights, yet there is often a significant gap between the aspirations set out in official policy and what happens on the ground.
The absence of consciousness within the public service which recognises that public servants are there to serve the people and which therefore results in lacklustre performance by public servants in rendering services to the public is cited as one of the shortcomings.
Addressing the uneven performance of the public service will not be achieved through multiple new initiatives but rather through a focused and coordinated approach. This will require addressing a set of interrelated issues including instability resulting from repeated changes in policy, under staffing and skills shortages, obstacles to building a sense of professional common purpose in the public service, political interference, lack of accountability, and insufficient clarity in the division of roles and responsibilities.
In the context of the public service and administration, the Charter seeks to improve service delivery programmes, reinforce the partners’ commitment to service delivery improvement for the benefit of all citizens, clarify the rights and obligations of each of the parties.
Against this backdrop, the Public Service Charter will serve as a guiding tool for good governance, democracy and sound working relations between the State, public servants, sectors in the civil society and the general citizenry.
As you would know, we do regular studies on what the challenges of the public service are and how we, as the employer, can play a constructive role in the improvement of these. Within the context of the current conference I want to highlight four challenges we identified and what we are doing about it.
We are very concerned about the conditions of our hospitals and clinics. As part of the employer’s responsibilities in terms of the Service Charter, we have committed to ensuring that we improve these conditions. I am certain that Minister Motsoaledi will discuss this with you. He has spent a great deal of time to ensure we can fast track the refurbishment of hospitals. This is an urgent priority for him and he has pioneered the PPP approach to ensure our hospitals and clinics are in a state which is conducive for nurses and doctors to work comfortably.
The other matter that is of concern in the area of nursing is absenteeism. The Public Service, as any other employer in the country, experiences absenteeism from the workplace as a major problem. Inadequate procedures and controls were in place to ensure consistent and objective decisions to prevent abuse of the system.
The abuse and poor management of sick leave have serious financial implications for the State and a detrimental effect on service delivery. Incapacity leave and ill-health retirements were not managed consistently, since a uniform and clear policy on the management of incapacity leave and ill-health retirements is lacking.
There rests an obligation on Employer to investigate:
- applications for incapacity leave i.t.o. the applicable collective agreements
- cases of ill-health retirement in terms of employment legislation
A number of important studies were done which identified shortcomings in the management of sick leave and incapacity in the Public Service. These reports are:
- PSC: Report on Sick leave Trends in the Public Service
- Study into GEPF disability experience & management of sick & incapacity leave
- Report of the Auditor-General On A Performance Audit of The Management Of Sick Leave Benefits At Certain National And Provincial Departments
From these studies it is clear that:
- The Public Service, as any other employer in the country, experiences absenteeism from the workplace as a major problem.
- Inadequate procedures and controls were in place to ensure consistent and objective decisions to prevent abuse of the system.
- The abuse and poor management of sick leave have serious financial implications for the State and a detrimental effect on service delivery.
- Incapacity leave and ill-health retirements were not managed consistently, since a uniform and clear policy on the management of incapacity leave and ill-health retirements is lacking.
- The usage of ill-health benefits and sick and incapacity leave are exceptionally high.
- A high absenteeism percentage was experienced.
- An analysis of 1557 applications for the period Nov. 2000 - Feb. 2001 showed that -
- 48% of all applications: probably or definitely would not have been granted ill-health benefits
- 68% of all applicants could have benefited from return to work strategies
- Departments used the same medical specialists or professionals to report on different employees’ health conditions and in the process compromised objectivity and specificity. Oftentimes the same reports were used only with different individuals’ names.
- Minor ailments masked by diagnosis or other conditions to create the impression that the employee’s condition was serious.
- Time delay between the onset of employee incapacity and the payment of pension benefits (where applicable), resulted in hardship to the genuinely incapacitated employee.
- Many recipients of ill-health retirement benefits returned to the job market within the Public Service and elsewhere.
- Temporary incapacity leave and/ or ill health retirements were often utilised to avoid using the correct measures for addressing other causes of poor work performance.
- Temporary incapacity leave granted to delay discharge from service based on ill-health even where such discharge would be warranted.
- The Public Service as employer could, with the correct and scientific approach, add value to employees’ lives, where an employee is temporarily incapacitated and could return to work after s/he was afforded the appropriate period of temporary incapacity leave to recuperate.
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Several actual case studies were reported. In particular that of a nurse. Conversation with the nurse on duty revealed some interesting facts:
- She is permanently employed in a State Hospital.
- She moonlights in the private hospital. (It is assumed she has permission to perform remunerated private work.)
- She indicated in the conversation in order to work at the private hospital she used/uses:
- Half of her maternity leave
- All her normal sick leave
- Additional incapacity leave
- Half of her annual leave
- The implications of her conduct is that -
- She is in breach of her employment contract.
- The employer suffers losses since it cannot render its services.
- There is an increased risk compounding a safe & healthy work environment.
- Service employees take on additional workload.
You would know in the nursing profession that the provision of such sick leave is exactly what it is – for sick leave. In the same way as maternity leave is for women who are pregnant and need maternity leave. But as you can see from the response received, sick leave is regarded as an entitlement, a very clear abuse of the system. If a nurse is well enough to work in another hospital, he or she cannot be on sick leave.
In my interaction with the PSCBC, this was raised by Denosa as a serious problem, the problem of moonlighting. Our request to you, as Denosa, is to find a solution to this abuse of the system, so that nurses are at work, on time and propose ways in which we can close these gaps in the system that are being abused, because our profession suffers, our image suffers and our patients suffer terribly.
The third challenge identified is that of the provision of housing. PSCBC Resolution 1 of 2012 signed in August 2011 provides for the development of the Government Employee Housing Scheme (GEHS) that ensures home ownership for employees in the Public Service.
The GEHS should be able to mobilise public investments and ensure that the following objectives are realised:
- access to affordable housing;
- access to affordable loans; and
- assist employees to rent houses with a view to buy.
The wage agreement also committed the State as Employer to build on the work that had been initiated in 2010 and 2011 to develop a comprehensive Government Employees Housing Scheme (GEHS) with a view to promoting home ownership for employees in the public service as opposed to paying a housing allowance.
I must reiterate the correctness and foresightedness of the PSCBC resolution for the establishment of the Government Employees Housing Scheme. There is a dire need to assist public servants with homeownership as it is evident that specifically salary levels 1-12, find it extremely difficult to access housing loans from commercial banks for a variety of reasons. The reasons for the high non-approval rate for this group ranges from low salaries, tightening of credit requirements by commercial banks due increased risk aversion, lack of proper financial discipline and financial management skills by employees (credit worthiness), etc.
Most public service employees in the indicated salary range, fall above the threshold for eligibility to Low Cost Subsidy Housing (formerly RDP houses) but also, fall below the qualifying threshold set by commercial banks. As a consequence, a number of these public service employees found themselves without property ownership and unfortunately engage in fraudulent activities like applying for the RDP houses. This has therefore become a societal challenge.
Let us agree that the current housing allowance does not necessarily meet the desired objectives of either the public service as a large employer or its employees moving towards home ownership. That is why government is moving to establish a workable scheme for the benefit of employees in the public service to have better access to quality housing.
I am happy to confirm that I have now approved the establishment of the Project Management Office to kick start the establishment and operation of the Government Employees Housing Scheme in my office. I trust the PMO will enjoy your support as organised labour in the PSCBC.
Already engagements are advancing in negotiating with the banks to ensure we deliver this important service to you. The Housing Scheme aims to assist employees in the Public Service to secure appropriate and affordable finance towards the purchase or upgrade of their own property. Before the end of the 2013/14 financial year we aim to launch the scheme and deliver benefits to about 30 000 employees.
This scheme is similar to those found in the Private Sector which include a combination of pension-backed loans, employer subsidies and variable support to employees to address challenges of housing access and to promote homeownership. We want to see more public servants own homes. Not just renting perpetually. We need to put to better and more sustainable use, the R900 monthly housing allowance.
Statistics indicate that of a total of 975 538 Government employees who receive the housing allowance, only 372 234 or 28% actually own a house. The current annual cost of the housing allowance to the fiscus is estimated at R11bn. The benefit is granted to employees as part of their conditions of service and augments the salary package. In terms of the wage agreement the housing allowance is currently capped at R900 per month irrespective of employee rank.
The fourth matter that I would like to touch on is the Remuneration Commission. President Zuma appointed former Chief Justice, Judge Sandile Ngcobo as the Chairperson of the Commission on 7 August 2013.
The Commission will review the remuneration and conditions of service policy in the public service and make recommendations concerning issues that include:
- a fair, equitable and efficient remuneration system in the public service; the Benchmarking of public service remuneration and conditions of service relative to market remuneration;
- inefficiencies in the remuneration structure as a result of factors such as excessive remuneration or inappropriate organisational design in ensuring fairness and equity; the current pay progression and bonus scheme in terms of its capacity to maximise service delivery without excessive wage costs;
- general trends in salary level, structures and wages;
- the principles which define the wage bill ceiling for fiscal stability;
- a suitable job classification framework for the public service to establish the link between pay and responsibilities of specific jobs i.e. nurses, doctors, educators, accountants, economists, statisticians etc;
- the uniform job grading system in order to improve job equity throughout the public service;
- a sustainable framework for recruiting and retaining skilled employees;
- measureable key performance indicators for the public service which may be used to evaluate individual and departmental performance (including PMDS); against salary levels.
We know the capacity of South Africa’s nurses, they are internationally acclaimed for their excellence. At some point we had to put a stop to it, because we were losing a great deal of nursing expertise to other countries.
The whole world was recruiting our nurses. Sadly, I must say that the professionalism of nurses is not what it used to be. We all long for the time when our nurses were the pride of our communities. In fact, before the time of traffic lights in our communities, the houses of nurses and clinics were used as traffic markings.
We would say to each other, “turn left at the nurse’s house”, or “it is two blocks after the clinic”. They were the pride of the community, always there to help. Nowadays we use maps and GPS equipment. For people whose lives are about caring, we need to get that space in society back, so that society can give respect and support to this important nursing profession.
We need to acknowledge the important role that nurses have played in the reduction of mother to child diseases and HIV infections. This has been recognised internationally and is the greatest achievement the profession can give. We are proud of the hard work done in primary health care.
We’ll do anything we can to improve your working conditions so that you can do whatever is necessary for you to care.
I thank you!
