DPSM partly succeeds in ‘Call to duty’ appeal

A panel of three Court of Appeal (CoA) judges, Justices Modiri Letsididi, Goemekgabo Tebogo- Maruping and Tshegofatso Mogomotsi, concurred in a ruling delivered on Thursday that the employer’s appeal succeeds in part in respect of two parts of the Industrial Court order which must reflect that the time spent on call by the nurses and midwives be regarded as working time and where appropriate as overtime, if they are required to be physically present at the health facility.

The government, through the DPSM, lost the case against the nurses and decided to lodge an appeal in an attempt to cling to the long standing ‘Call to Duty’ practice, which the nurses have argued is an abuse they have endured for a long time. In the ‘Call to Duty’, nurses are expected to report to duty when required to do so beyond their working hours. In the lower court, the nurses won the case where they had taken their employer to court seeking the discontinuation of the ‘Call to Duty’.