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The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] is extremely worried about the working conditions of our members and workers at the Health Professional Council of South Africa [HPCSA].

A NEHAWU delegation led by the General Secretary, Cde Zola Saphetha, had a members meeting yesterday at the HPCSA head office in Pretoria yesterday to listen to our members concerns. Firstly, workers are worried about the threat to job security that is looming because of the Business Process Re-Engineering [BPR] that is being unilaterally implemented by the employer. The movement of workers to new positions as part of the BPR has created confusion at HPCSA and has left workers muddled in terms of the new responsibilities they have to perform.

In the Education and Training section members submitted a memo to management to complain about the following:

• BPR implementation process has left this unit confused, frustrated, miserable, exploited, unfairly treated and without a reliable leadership role to manage and to account
• Staff allocation and placements to a new division without being consulted on what is expected of them in terms of their clear duties and responsibilities with job descriptions
• Facilities Management, Health and Safety Management never come to observe and address the unit on the temporary office space that is small and congested in dealing with health and risk factors on daily basis for the past two [2] months
• Unclear job descriptions for the purpose of the division in-order to provide total administrative service to the Professional Boards
• Risk Management factors on confidential matters such as receipts of applications for examinations, internship programmes, examinations papers and scripts, including staff belongings as there are no lockable facilities or strong room.
• Issue of reporting lines is a great frustration and misery as the line function Ombudsman/Acting COO – Dr Munyadziwa Kwinda, who announced 2 months ago that, will be leading the unit decided to no longer take part in such a unit completely and thus left it hanging

All the above grievances have been continuously raised with management for the past two months and management continues to turn a blind eye to these genuine and urgent demands by workers. NEHAWU rejects the naked display of intransigence and arrogance by management in dealing with these issues raised by our members and workers. The national union demands immediate action on these issues as workers are highly agitated and ready to embark on a strike action if no immediate and suitable solution is found.

In terms of the Performance Management and Development System Policy in the HPCSA, its objectives seek to establish a performance culture directly supporting the strategic objectives of HPCSA. NEHAWU has observed with dismay and shock a management process and function which happen to be a tool of their function under a policy of monitoring and evaluation in terms of Performance Management and Development System [PMDS].

On the 15th October 2018, members and staff of the above unit were given verbal warnings in a written format by the Manager function accusing them that they failed to submit their divisional performance agreements. This department has been at logger head with its staff for many unresolved issues initially stemming from this BPR process where they were forced to move to another floor and they were not properly consulted through change management processes and they were even threatened by dismissal by the head of the Department [CFO] Ms Melissa De Graaff, which made working environment even more vile.

The visit yesterday to the HPCSA has proven to us beyond reasonable doubt that our members and workers are exploited, humiliated, and their Constitutional Rights are being grossly undermined and infringed from all ranks of management function.

NEHAWU demands an urgent improvement of the working conditions and environment at HPCSA, as well as enforcement of good governance principles. As mentioned above, our members and workers have ran of patience and are ready to form picket lines in defence of jobs and a relentless fight for better working conditions. A meeting has been sought with the management to try and turn the situation around. However, NEHAWU will continue to try to find a legal recourse in relation to the BPR and in particular the IT Oracle service cloud processes.

Issued by NEHAWU Secretariat