Attorney Michael de Broglio on: South Africa, Law, Politics, Attorneys, Sport, Photography, Technology, Gadgets, Media, Crime, Road Accidents Fund,
Divorce, Maintenance, Personal Injury, Medical Negligence
The government to trim thousands of jobs in public service
Apparently, thousands of Government workers over the age of 60 will be offered a voluntary retrenchment by the government. This is because the Government has again agreed to a new 3 year wage agreement that has gone over the budget by about R30 billion. The Government say they will encourage early retirement by topping up pension funds for those who take retirement packages – which of course will cost us more immediately right now – and one wonders how many people will take up that package. If they are over the budget by R30 billion over 3 years it means that they need to reduce R10 billion worth of salaries per year, and I don’t think they will get enough people to agree to give up good jobs working in the government with far less accountability than you would have in the private sector that would add up to R10 billion.
I have written about this problem before in my blog – we have far too many government employees and the reality is they are overpaid. Their salaries are eating into the funds that we need for education, policing, our courts and health services, so the next time you see somebody loafing around in the Post Office or asking you why you have come to the Post Office 20 minutes before closing time, as if that is a sin, remember how we have chosen to have that person in that job rather than another teacher or another doctor servicing the ill and the weak. At the moment, the bills for government employees’ wages is one-third of the country’s entire annual budget and government wages have increase 10,3% annually since 2009 – far ahead of anything in the private sector.
Posted by Michael de Broglio on Monday 30-Jul-18
Post a Comment
Comments
Prishani said:
on Tuesday 04-Sep-18 04:14 PM
I wonder if this is the best way to sort out this issue, they are clearly trying to cut back costs and not worried about the wellness of their employees! I’m not sure that early retirement is necessarily a good thing, but of course the extra top up will make it look attractive to some!
Michelle D said:
on Friday 24-Aug-18 04:45 PM
We do indeed have way too many people working in the public sector, but worse than that, we have too many people employed in the public sector and not attending to much work.
Brenda Du Toit said:
on Thursday 23-Aug-18 07:54 AM
I agree .They actually need better management.Its not easy to work with the Government they are rude and they are over paid some of the staff.
Ashleigh said:
on Friday 10-Aug-18 11:50 AM
Well we can clearly see when going to places such as Home Affairs, Licensing departments, Police departments and Post Offices that service delivery is a problem from pure laziness and lack of customer care yet they are being paid a salary for problems that do not get sorted out within the departments. My children's grandmother who is in Australia that normally sends them some parcels has just been informed that she cannot post parcels to South Africa for now. I wonder if it is due to corruption, theft, laziness lack of ambition to provide a good service and no appreciation of atleast being employed.
Jadine Esterhuizen said:
on Tuesday 07-Aug-18 08:18 AM
It might be costly to pay out those packages now but will be very influential for job creation and promotions.
Thabitha said:
on Friday 03-Aug-18 08:25 AM
Maybe during interview they were all told one thing, be lazy, rude and serious pain to everyone who needs your assistance. I also don't think they will get enough people to agree to give up good jobs
Prishani said:
on Thursday 02-Aug-18 05:11 PM
I think it is so important to work hard for what you earn and be accountable, this concept unfortunately is non-existent to many government employees and they hold such a crucial role in providing service delivery to our nation! They should get paid as per the amount of work they do and deadlines they meet!
Shristi said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 06:12 PM
This is totally unacceptable.. The States finances are in a crisis. The government should look at ways to fix the state's finances so the country can grow and create jobs again rather than giving the public service employees such a substantial increase. A lot of that money can go towards other sectors such as education, creating job opportunities for many unemployed etc.
Cornelie said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 05:01 PM
Where does a person even start with the Goverment jobs every now and agian they change things and think the other person on the end will be better of.
Melissa said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 03:05 PM
I hate dealing with the government, they are useless in so many ways that it just buggers up your whole day and then they get all these benefits....so unfair
Tersia said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 01:58 PM
That is definitely true - Government employed or just the Government itself are very much overpaid.Maybe when you are employed by the Government you are told to be lazy and to do as little as possible - I don't know, because it boggles my mind that ALL of them just don't care. It's actually sad that we just accept it as well. I don't think the money problems or them working harder will ever become better.
Sinead said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 11:44 AM
Overpaid for sure! But they like so sit around and do nothing all day.
I saw a meme once about this as well - something about government vehicles driving fast as if they have any urgency in getting to their destination to actually do any work. I can't recall the exact wording but you get the gist of it.
Anyway, there's no use complaining...
They actually need better management and tasks will be attended to. If they can just get that right?
South Africa needs to learn from the other countries and their mishaps
Daniella said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 10:24 AM
I agree that government facilities are far to over staffed and over paid- once a place is over staffed work loads never get attended to as no one owns a task and they will constantly think that someone else will attend to it. If the government just hired a handful of staff members, a great management team, implement a working system and adhere to disciplinary procedures things will be smooth sailing and things will actually get done.
Michelle said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 08:34 AM
I agree that this is completely unacceptable. But this has been a problem for as long as I can remember. Not once have I ever went to a government company and was satisfied with the service I received. But what can we do than just complain. We still need to make use off same.
patrick said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 08:27 AM
The move makes sense if they use it to bring in young job seekers who in any way will be paid lesser since they are at the bottom of the salary scales.
Zindy said:
on Wednesday 01-Aug-18 07:57 AM
I agree far to many government employees with overpaid salaries that half the time are underqualified, not very helpful! One government sector I believe is perhaps underpaid but I have to question it too, is police and teachers. Always hearing what they get paid is shocking for police example there high risk job however also not helpful when you need them. Social media pictures circulating how they asleep on duty ect. Management should step in and dismiss employees that are not an asset to the company and give the jobs to people who actually want to work.
Joyce said:
on Tuesday 31-Jul-18 04:58 PM
I think poor service from this sector is caused by employees who ignore their work daily tasks and do as they pleased, earn salaries and employment benefits for just being there. I don’t think their plan will succeed getting enough people to agree giving up their good jobs.
Jessica said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 04:11 PM
As it currently stands we have a massive - 2 161 million civil servants. All of which contribute to the GEPF, which is currently the largest pension fund in the whole of AFRICA! Astounding figure! The benefits given to Government Employees far surpass those afforded to employees within the private sector!
Liz said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 03:53 PM
This is one of the major problems in Greece, that resulted in the catastrophic economic position we find ourselves in today. The percentage of government workers is astounding, government employee wages account for some 27 percent of the government's total expenditure in Greece. South Africa should learn from these mistakes and cut down drastically on redundant workers.
Jadine Richards said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 03:32 PM
Government employees need a complete attitude reconstruction. It is actually mind blowing when a government employee does their job. I really wonder at which point the change comes in because surely they cannot start out that way. Another thing is that the type of work ethic that is cultivated in the public sector is incompatible with the private sector...these employees are in my opinion effectively unemployable.
Fikile said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 03:11 PM
It's not going to be easy for people that don't really enjoy their job to just let it go. How are you going to agree to leaving a job that pays you for doing nothing the whole day? the only time government work's work is when they know that they are being watched, then they get bonuses for doing nothing but to shout at people for nothing. The worst thing that they can do to a person is to lose peoples things
Angelique said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 02:56 PM
You have the most relaxed job if you work for our government. Great salary, benefits for minimal work done. Just phone a government hospital and see how long it takes to get anything out of them - even answering the phone is too much effort. You have to lodge formal complaints with CEO/Hospital managers to get anything done. Tea breaks and unlimited paid leave, man the life. And the tax payer pays for these services. Why not focus on management then so that we pay them to do a proper job and without attitude!!
Victoria said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 02:23 PM
I agree, and also think that government workers do not do their jobs effectively. If they stopped wasting so much money, they could be helping other sectors that need that money more.
courtney said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 11:52 AM
I hate dealing with the government. I know of someone that should have gone to a Government Hospital but they refused her. I simply do not understand how certain people's minds work. Id rather help someone out in my lunch time then having a lunch time. They should get a grip and learn that it's not always about yourself!
Henrietta said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 11:33 AM
I hate going to home affairs, traffic department and the likes. They really have a way to sour my day. For example we went to the traffic department for the car licence and bad luck for us we got there just before their lunch time and what do we know, when the lady was done with the person in front of us, she closed her window and sat down in her chair doing nothing. I mean really.
When my mom went to the labour department she sat there the whole day and some closing time she was 1 of 4 left, they refused to assist her told her to come back tomorrow and stand in the queue again not we'll assist you first in the morning no they locked up and even made the 4 people left go out by the back because they already locked up.
It's like they doing you a favor when you go there and not because we pay them to be there. Our government services is pathetic and it sours my day if I have to go there and we have to pay for that kind of service.
Alexis said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 10:05 AM
To go and do anything which involves the government is slow and taxing. You are made to feel that you are an inconvenience when going there, and all you want to do is just say....you are getting paid to do this....so do your job...but it is the mentality of who cares and so I will do as little as the next person...have my twenty tea breaks and ignore the phone and go on lunch and ignore the next customer - it is disgusting at how much is spent -when that money can be put to better use -
Nikita said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 09:02 AM
Government employees really irk me for the most part. Whenever I go to the post office to pay rates and taxes it’s as if they are doing me the biggest favour by simply doing their job! I have also recently visited someone at a government hospital and the state of the place was absolutely shocking! There are simply no consequences for these employees. They basically do as they please without any accountability for the end result. I feel sorry for the few that do actually work because they have to carry the weight of all the other loafers. I was watching Carte Blanche last night with the municipality at the Vaal that has collapsed. There is raw sewerage running into the roads because there is no money and no maintenance being done on the water treatment plants. Yet the employees who have not lifted a finger to try and fix the problem are still being paid their monthly salaries. This is why nobody believes in the public services of this country and this is why private companies for medical aid etc make so much money.
Bianca N said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 08:57 AM
It is incredibly unfair. We have a government that preaches better education but spend all their money (and ours) on government employees who 90% of the time try to be as unhelpful as possible to anyone who needs their assistance. Also, they are usually the first to complain about anything and everything and forget that they are extremely overpaid and under-worked.
Megan said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 08:32 AM
The annual increase of government wages is ridiculous and unfair. The Country will never move forward with greedy narrow minded people getting more money for doing less whilst intelligent and underprivileged individuals suffer. Not even only the underprivileged, everyone else who is not connected to governmental institutions.
david said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 08:11 AM
it's not just the public service, it's all the SOE's too.
SAA - 957 people per plane
their nearest competition United AIrlines - 162 people per plane.
Mathilda Du Preez said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 07:45 AM
This government disgust me and I'm not shy to say it.
Government employees wages one-third of the country’s entire annual budget?? That is ridiculous
This money as you stated could have contributed to better education and policing
brumilde said:
on Monday 30-Jul-18 07:25 AM
Sad to read stats and facts like this. I would rather chew my arm of then go to a government office of any sorts, those workers look like they have been forced to work there and you are there to add to their pain, mean time they are well looked after by the government
Johannesburg based attorney specializing in personal injury matters including Road Accident Fund claims and medical negligence matters. My interests include golf, reading and the internet and the way it is constantly developing. I have a passion for life and a desire for less stress!
