DPSM boss preaches peace with unions
Goitsemodimo Kaelo | Wednesday May 18, 2016 16:19
Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday, Maphorisa conceded that the two parties had had a rocky relationship in recent years, but said issues could be solved amicably.
“It is true that employment relations with unions are not as good. But they are doable and we can mend things. There is need to dialogue to find solutions with regard to the issues we have,” she said.
Maphorisa also admitted that there are problems with the constitution of the Public Service Bargaining Council, but said since the matter was before the courts, she hoped some of the ambiguities would be ironed out.
“There have been contradictions, but we hope the Court of Appeal will give us direction with its ruling soon,” she said.
Maphorisa was responding to questions raised by PAC member, Samson Moyo Guma who wanted the director to comment on employment relations and whether the bad relationship between the unions and the employer could be as a result of the ambiguity of the constitution.
Guma, who is also the Member of Parliament for Tati East, said the disharmony between government and unions was affecting service delivery. Meanwhile, Maphorisa also revealed that the vacancy rate in the public service remained high at 7.4 percent although it has improved from 8.6 percent in the previous financial year.
She stated that central government, particularly the ministries of health and education had the highest vacancies.
“The vacancies at the Ministry of Health are for graduates from the teaching hospital and lack of professionals within the health sector,” she said.