The City of Cape Town has justified its ‘naming and shaming’ of more than 111 employees for a series of infractions, including absenteeism, fraud and sexual misconduct.
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Unions have condemned the move, claiming that City Manager Lungelo Mbandazayo had no authority to publish a list of workers who were fired between January and June of this year, as it violated their rights.
In its defence, the City stated that this was a new project launched by the City Manager in an effort to uphold three of the city’s values: accountability, openness and caring.
The action was intended to encourage ethical behaviour and compliance with the City’s Code of Conduct among employees, according to the statement.
However, Dr Mpho Magau, a senior lecturer in Industrial Psychology at Stellenbosch University, informed IOL that it violated the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia).
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‘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.
According to the City, the list was only distributed internally to staff and was not made public.
The City manager’s email stated: ‘In the spirit of the City of Cape Town’s values of openness and accountability, we will publish information related to the dismissal of all staff members on a monthly basis. The first communication will cover 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).’
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