In a further example of the South African Government’s more aggressive attitude towards powerful public sector unions, it has published draft legislation to give Public Service bosses the power to transfer employees, even against their will, between Departments or jobs.
Under current rules, Government employees may only be transferred with their written consent, but if the proposed Public Administration Management Amendment Bill passes, that would no longer be the case.
Instead, if a Public Servant does not consent, their managers would only have to give “due consideration of any representations made by the employee”, and be able to show “the transfer is operationally justified”.
In a statement, the Department of Public Service and Administration said the change was necessary to provide for the transfer of Government employees across spheres where they were needed most.
This was “to ensure the mobility of employees… to where human resource deficiencies exist”.
“This will enhance good governance and enable the transferability of skills where required,” the Department said.
In conjunction with other technical changes to Public Service rules, the amendment would allow for the redeployment of staff from jobs in big cities to offices in far-flung — and often dysfunctional — municipalities.
Those in middle management could find themselves transferred to the front-lines of service delivery, or employees could be withdrawn from a Department seen as overstaffed to be put to work in areas where volunteers were hard to come by.
At present, Government workers may only be temporarily seconded against their will, rather than fully transferred.
As the draft Bill stands, protections for those transferred would remain, so that no employee would be paid less, or see a reduction in their conditions of service, due to the transfer.
Currently, Government employees enjoy most of the protections of legislation such as the Labour Relations Act, but also have a raft of sometimes arcane special rules and regulations attached to their employment.
Under the draft law, Public Servants transferred against their objections would not necessarily have recourse to such general legal protections; another clause in the Bill makes it superior to any law other than the Constitution.
Pretoria, 7 April 2021
