Union rejects hefty pay hikes for managers

Municipal managers and senior staff in local authorities will receive a pay hike amid outrage from the SA Municipal Workers’ Union and questions about equitable salary structures in municipalities.

Two months before the local government elections, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen has gazetted increases for municipal managers.

Managers in category 1 municipalities will earn between R852,706 and R1,042,196 a year — an increase of 5.6%. This category got a 28% hike in the 2014-2015 financial year.

Category 10 municipal managers will earn between R2,301,368 and R3,524,881 a year, an increase of more than R200,000. The increases come into effect on July 1.

But Samwu, which represents most municipal workers, was not happy about the increases.

“Our stance would be that we are rejecting those increases. We believe that municipal managers are already highly overpaid, whereas municipal workers are underpaid,” said Papikie Mohale, Samwu’s national spokesman.

He said it was undermining for the union because it has struggled to secure increases for workers.

Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, delivering his Budget speech earlier this year, called on the government to cut back on salaries, hiring new staff and unnecessary costs, such as travel.

Karen Heese, an economist at Municipal IQ, a monitoring group, said the issue of pay equity was important in the sector for legitimacy of authority figures and good faith.

The Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department did not respond to questions sent to it even though its spokesman, Tsakani Baloyi, agreed to do so.