Johannesburg - A special team has been set up to come up with proposals aimed at ending the ongoing industrial actions by personnel of the City of Johannesburg's emergency services.
Emergency personnel including ambulance, fire trucks and paramedic crews downed tools on Tuesday over an apparent delay in the implementation of a wage agreement.
According to the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU), the department had last year promised to implement new salary structures early in May this year.
However, the Johannesburg Emergency Services denied that there was a salary agreement reached, and called the protest illegal.
During an urgent meeting held on Thursday a team comprising of senior officials from the City of Joburg and Gauteng Emergency Services was set up to come up with proposals aimed at ending the disputes by next Monday.
The meeting was attended by Gauteng MEC for Health Qedani Mahlangu, Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Health Councilor Matsidiso Mfikoe and MMC for Public Safety Councilor Thomas Phakathi.
Ms Mahlangu said intentions were to engage the unions within the next week with a revised proposal, adding that it is hoped that differences will subsequently be ironed out by the end of the same week.
"In the end it is about quality and timeous service to our people and getting caught up in wranglings that are in the end irrelevant is not the way this government seeks to conduct its business," she said.
The parties agreed on a number of interventions aimed at addressing the ongoing industrial actions.
This included an understanding that the concerns of workers must be objectively assessed to assist in identifying which of the workers concerns were legitimate and must be addressed by the municipality and the province as opposed to the ones that should be escalated to national government.
Ms Mahlangu also emphasised the need to acknowledge problems raised by labour which were legitimate.
"We must be able to state facts for what they are, while owning up to our responsibilities, we must always be bold enough to accept our limitations and transparently put these to affected stakeholders.
"This should enable us, together to find a way out, the exercise itself need not be acrimonious," Ms Mahlangu said.
She further noted that court interdicts and lock outs cannot be the way to go about when differing with each other.
Ms Mahlangu has committed herself to contact the chairperson of SAMWU for a briefing on developments and discussions on how different parties ought to conduct themselves within the process of seeking solutions.
Among the issues of grave concern expressed by Ms Mahlangu were reports about intimidation of staff and destruction to property.
"This would not be tolerated and that the law should take its course," she warned and encouraged the MMCs to continue their dialogue with SAMWU.
Meanwhile, the Gauteng Department of Health and Social Development has urged the public in the City of Joburg Municipality to call 10177 when using a landline and 112 when calling from a cellphone for all emergencies.
"The department would once again like to reiterate that emergency calls have been re-routed from the City of Joburg Municipality to Gauteng Provincial Emergency Services call centre. This has been done to minimise disruption to service delivery," the city said.
