“The budget cut led to the termination of contracts for therapeutic services, support and administrative staff. This affected the processing of the contracted employees, resulting in administrative delays,” said Modiba.
The department apologised for the inconvenience.
Jack Bloom, a DA member of the Gauteng legislature, said the situation was unacceptable.
“As usual, they blame administrative issues, but it is unacceptable that workers have to suffer for so long without payment,” he said.
Mbali Sabela, provincial secretary of Denosa, said the matter reflected badly on the department.
“We have inquired about the problem and some hospitals managed to make the necessary payments last week or early this week. Several people were and still are affected. Emmaus Hospital and St Chad's Community Health Centre payments are still outstanding. Both facilities are in KwaZulu-Natal,” said Sabela..
“The one hospital said it had not been able to process payments due to load-shedding, while the other blamed its HR manager being on leave. Nothing tangible.”
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More than 1,000 staff have not been paid, says Gauteng health department
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The Gauteng health department says it is processing the payments of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers after not paying them for more than six weeks.
This follows an outcry by the DA and nursing union the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) on Thursday regarding glitches that affected Covid-19-contracted employees.
Department spokesperson Motalatale Modiba said contract employees at various facilities experienced delays in the payment of their May salaries.
“The payment is expected to be made within two weeks. [A total of] 1,145 employees are impacted and have been engaged through the facilities where they are stationed.
“The affected nurses and doctors had to be onboarded as new appointments meaning a recruitment and selection process had to be followed in appointing them,” Modiba said.
He added that the department held extensive consultations with CEOs of facilities and organised labour at the beginning of the year because there was only a R600m budget for compensation of employees under the grant for the 2023/24 financial year.
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“The budget cut led to the termination of contracts for therapeutic services, support and administrative staff. This affected the processing of the contracted employees, resulting in administrative delays,” said Modiba.
The department apologised for the inconvenience.
Jack Bloom, a DA member of the Gauteng legislature, said the situation was unacceptable.
“As usual, they blame administrative issues, but it is unacceptable that workers have to suffer for so long without payment,” he said.
Mbali Sabela, provincial secretary of Denosa, said the matter reflected badly on the department.
“We have inquired about the problem and some hospitals managed to make the necessary payments last week or early this week. Several people were and still are affected. Emmaus Hospital and St Chad's Community Health Centre payments are still outstanding. Both facilities are in KwaZulu-Natal,” said Sabela..
“The one hospital said it had not been able to process payments due to load-shedding, while the other blamed its HR manager being on leave. Nothing tangible.”
TimesLIVE
Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.
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