"I really do not know about our future," said a local nurse talking about how provincialisation will affect their jobs. "All we have been told is that the organogram will change where our jobs will be reviewed."
"I really do not know about our future," said a local nurse talking about how provincialisation will affect their jobs. "All we have been told is that the organogram will change where our jobs will be reviewed."
Over the past years, there have been discussions to transfer primary health care to the provincial health department. The decision was endorsed by the Provincial Health Council around 2006. The process stalled for a bit and then was revived again and the current deadline is now the end of December.
The process has now reached a stage where municipalities were invited to Bhisho to sign the transfer agreement. Makana councillors met for a council meeting on Thursday last week to make a resolution before the agreement could be signed, but a number of primary health staff (who wish to remain anonymous) that Grocott's Mail spoke to are unclear of this change that is about to take place.
One local nurse said her biggest concern is how their human resource (HR) related problems will be addressed. "At the moment when I have a problem I just go to HR and it is solved immediately." She said that on the provincial level, there will be so many staff to cater for and is concerned how all their voices will be heard. "Right now I am under paid, so if there will be benefits on the provincial level of which I do not know about, I will be happy."
Two other nurses said that they are just aware of the job evaluations that will take place, but are unclear about the effects on salaries. They however, welcomed the change. "It's long overdue. The municipality did not have a rural allowance," one of the nurses said.
She explained that Grahamstown is considered a rural area and the provincial department offers rural allowance to health professionals who work in rural areas. "Maybe we will get more recognition where the more years you work, the more you will go up in you ranking. We hope the salaries will increase as municipal workers, we are not happy."
She indicated that there was a briefing which was organised by the provincial health department last week, but not everyone could make it due to their work shifts. Speaking to some general workers and a health officer who attended this briefing, they said that they were concerned about their provident funds which is paid out to the employees or their dependents upon retirement.
"I just want them to give me my money and then I can start afresh on the provincial level, because there is so much corruption going on in Bhisho," the health officer said. He also mentioned that at the briefing they were informed that if a post does not exist on the provincial level, such as for a health worker for instance, then the post will have to be created.
The draft transfer agreement stated that the transfer of staff shall not interrupt the individual staff member's continuity of employment service. It also indicated that soon after the transfer, the province will perform a job evaluation of posts where after the appropriate public service rank designation has been determined, a salary scale will apply.
"If after the evaluation any transferring employee's salary notch and/or scale as at the effective date is higher than the maximum salary notch of the applicable public service designation and salary scale as evaluated, such employee will retain his/her existing salary notch and salary scale on a contractual to incumbent basis."
