Demoted Govt Cleaner Gets Justice

Mpho Mokwape | Monday June 18, 2018 13:33

 

The employee, Segolame Itumeleng who was doing the electrical and maintenance work under a salary scale of a cleaner will be paid accordingly after settlement agreement was reached this week.

Itumeleng had to sue her then employer, the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services for exploiting her for three years by paying her a cleaner’s salary.

According to the settlement agreement, the parties agreed that she worked as a Technical Assistant in the Maintenance Section from July 31, 2013 to December 14, 2015 and therefore ceased to be a Cleaner.

Consequently, the she was accordingly entitled to draw benefits of B2 from July 31, 2013 and she will thus be paid the salary difference of the B2 and A3 scale, including pension benefits between July 31, 2013 and September 3, 2017 when she was appointed as a Senior Gauging Assistant at B3 Scale.

“That she be paid the salary difference of the scale B3 and B2 from the 4th September 2017 to date, including pension benefits and henceforth she be paid in accordance with the B2 scale benefits,” read the settlement.

Before the settlement, she appeared before court last week where the State sought a postponement. According to her court documents, Itumeleng started her career as a cleaner at the same ministry in June 2005.

In or around 2011, the employee was then enrolled into a vocational course in Electrical Engineering at Madirelo Training and Testing Centre under the then Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs, which she completed in 2012. She was then awarded a certificate, which constituted a Class B Trade Test. “Following completion of the courses above and with her consent, she was then redeployed to the Maintenance Section under Office Operations, within the Department to commence work as a Technical Assistant by letter dated the 31st of July 2013,” read the papers.

Despite the differences in duties and responsibilities as well as in salary scale for the two positions, Itumeleng continued to earn the salary of a cleaner at A3 scale.

Lawyer, Uyapo Ndadi represented her.