Johannesburg - Gauteng MEC Health MEC Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko has promised to end the role of labour agencies, which pocket more than R50 million a month from the department.
Nkomo-Ralehoko was speaking during a candle-lit healing ceremony for the 12 healthcare workers who died following the December 24 gas tanker explosion in Boksburg.
She said she was prepared to work with trade unions and other stakeholders to save the department more than R50 million that goes into paying labour brokers who bill the department for healthcare nurses who are registered with these labour brokers.
The MEC added that her department would then be able to employ these contractual nursing staff, whose employment is secured through the system of labour consultants.
The MEC, who was a keynote speaker at the healing service held at the Boksburg Civic Centre on Tuesday, called for trade unions to refrain from discussing labour-related matters at public events, saying this was akin to airing the health department’s dirty laundry in public.
She was responding to an accusation made by Sello Mafela of Nehawu and other union representatives, who had earlier accused the department of ignoring workers' demands for dignified living wages. Mafela said the plight of workers was being ignored by those in leadership positions, adding that some employees in the sector continued to be exploited by the powers that be.
"We can’t rest as organised labour and ascend podiums while we are quite aware that the people that have departed here are people who have had no increases as we speak. They are dying now without their 3%," Mafela asserted.
However, during her turn to address the members of the healthcare fraternity, the MEC said that having already met with unions more than three times since taking over in October 2022, it was unfair for trade unions to use a public gathering to raise issues that could be raised during stakeholder engagements.
She said that she was willing to work with unions to end the labour brokering trade, which unions always call for to be abolished because it is equivalent to modern-day slavery.
"For me, I felt that my colleague was not doing it right. We have alliance meetings, and those are the meetings with them, but when it comes to workers’ issues, we have a forum that I want them to come to and raise those things."
"I am prepared to work with trade unions to fight for an end to labour brokers. I will welcome everyone who wants to work with me to eradicate the use of labour agencies, who are the middlemen for contract workers at health facilities across the province.
"They can’t sit and keep quiet when every month, I’m paying more than R50 million to nursing agencies that are working in the department, and they are part of the staff in the department. They are the ones that must be vocal about that, but they don’t raise it," she said.
She added that her department requires nurses who will be unemployed in March when their contracts expire, despite the fact that there is a severe shortage in the province.
"This R50 million, which goes to labour brokers every month, could be better spent within the department on hiring nurses on a full-time basis," she said.
The Star