Land Affairs employees angry at ‘Covid-19 non-compliance’

Workers are accusing management of failing to comply with Covid-19 regulations.

They are threatening to shut down the building until their demands are met.

The Public Servants Association’s (PSA) Nomsa Mohajane says they have met with management on more than one occasion.

“We have been having meetings with the management regarding the rotation of the staff, because we are working with the conveyancer, the public and there is a problem with the building itself, the building is not complying. We have been having problems with aircon system, ventilation and some parts  of the buildings don’t even have windows.”

Mohajane says the rotation system was brought to an end when the county moved to level 2 of the lockdown.

“Previously we had rotations, we were allowed to rotate and it stopped when we went to lockdown level 2. So now the office is fully capacitated and there is a problem, conveyancer don’t report a case when there is someone who tested positive for Covid-19, sometimes we hear from the corridors that someone has tested positive.”

She claims there are more than 200 people at the office at any one time.

“We are planning to keep the building shut down until the management comes on board and allow rotation to take place to limit the number of officials in the office, taking into consideration of people with co-morbidities. We lost our colleague on Saturday. The staff is about 212 when we were rotating at least a 100 was allowed at a time at the office.”

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development says it is aware of the grievances.

Spokesperson Reggie Ngobo says the matter will be resolved.

“The department is aware of employees protesting outside our deeds offices, Their issues relate to issues of decontamination after an employee tested positive.

“The management is attending to the matter and everything should be sorted before the end of business today.”

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