Cape Town - The City of Cape Town has defended its “naming and shaming” of more than 111 staffers for a string of trangressions including absenteeism, fraud and sexual harassment.
Unions have slammed the move saying the City manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo, had no right to publish the list of workers, who were dismissed between January and June this year, as it undermined their rights.
In its defence, the City said this was a new initiative by the City manager in an effort to adhere to three of the city’s values, which are accountability, openness and caring.
The move was aimed at promoting ethical behaviour and the City’s Code of Conduct among staff members, it said.
But Stellenbosch University senior lecturer in Industrial Psychology, Dr Mpho Magau, said it was in violation of the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).
“The act requires employers to safeguard the integrity and sensitivity of private information by implementing information systems that promote secure data capturing and storage of personal information. This also applies to securing the employees’ disciplinary information and ensuring that it is always kept confidential.
“In fact, it can be deemed appalling to share such information publicly within the company if employees were not even subjected to formal disciplinary proceedings to defend their case, and surprisingly read on internal communication platforms that their service has been terminated,” said Magau.
The City said the list was distributed internally to staff only and not for the public’s eye.
An email sent by the City manager read: “In the spirit of the City of Cape Town’s values of openness and accountability, we will be publishing information related to the dismissal of all staff members who have been dismissed on a monthly basis. For this first communication, we will be covering the period from January to June.
“The reason I believe that this is important is that staff members who are employed by the City can be made aware of the consequences of engaging in certain behaviours or taking undesirable actions.
“I also wish to publish this to all of you so that you can feel confident enough in our process to come forward if you have information about a staff member engaging in behaviour or taking action that can go against the law and our City ethics (Local Government Code of Conduct and City Code of Ethics).”
The Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) expressed dismay over the publishing of employees’ names and details related to internal disciplinary proceedings.
Imatu Cape Metro region manager Etienne Bruwer said the approach served no purpose other than to humiliate those named.
“Being dismissed by any employer is already a traumatising event for employees, regardless of anyone’s opinion of the (offence) they are alleged to have committed.
“If the intention is to warn other employees in relation to the types of alleged conduct that may lead to dismissal, this impact can be served without the publication of employee names,” he said.
Bruwer said the majority of affected employees had exercised their rights to challenge the fairness of their termination at the SALGBC and to embarrass them in this fashion when their dismissals may still be overturned was unfair and wrong.
“We further note from the list of employees circulated by the City manager’s office, that not all of these employees were dismissed following a disciplinary hearing.
“Some opted to utilise their right to resign or retire in terms of the Disciplinary Collective Agreement and these employees have thus not been proven to have committed any misconduct.
“They may have opted to exercise their right to resign for myriad reasons. Publishing their names as though they have been found guilty of misconduct is against the spirit of the collective agreement and the collective bargaining process,” Bruwer said.
He said a public name and shame campaign could also hold serious legal implications for the employer should any employee want to reserve their legal right.
SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) spokesperson Hlalanathi Gagayi said they were concerned and had written to the City. “We have written to the mayor and if he doesn’t respond, we will meet again as a union to discuss the way forward.”
Gagayi also said the municipality manager undermines the workers because some of the people on that list are still busy with disciplinary hearings while others have voluntarily resigned.