Wednesday, 27 January 2010

BEMAWU MEMBER TSELISO LEBALLO UNFAIRLY SUSPENDED

Senior Manager and BEMAWU member Tseliso Leballo of the SABC has been unfairly suspended by the SABC last week (19 January 2010). BEMAWU today filed a dispute of unfair suspension with the CCMA. Last week Mr. Leballo received a letter of intention to suspend him. Immediate after he received the letter, his access card was taken away and he was escorted out of the building. The following day his laptop was collected from his residence by the SABC , his 3G card was blocked and an urgent staff meeting were called to inform staff another manager has been appointed to act in his absence. Several BEMAWU members who witnessed this informed the union of the suspension and the fact that Mr. Leballo was escorted out of the building.

When BEMAWU filed a complaint with SABC Employee Relations, his laptop and access card were returned to him but he was refused access to the SABC and his office. Although the letter of intention to suspend stated that he had until today, close of business to forward reasons why he should not be suspended, it is clear the SABC has effectively suspended him without the opportunity to forward reasons. This is extremely prejudicial and unfair conduct of the SABC and we will not tolerate this kind of high handed behaviour by the SABC. We have requested the CCMA to declare Mr. Leballo’s suspension unfair and to award compensation for the unfair suspension.

Very broad and vague allegations were put to Mr. Leballo which makes it difficult if not impossible to respond to.

On a different note...
Seemingly the new Board and Mr. Mokoetle has declared war on its employees. Whilst most serious allegations pointed out in the AG’s report and other forensic audit reports are left unattended, we received confirmation that employee’s attendance are under investigation.  According to a source the Board has requested the access and departure times of staff with the aim to discipline employees for times they arrived late or left early. What a twisted way of performance management! Should we not rather start at the core of the problem, the AG Report and get rid of the corrupt and big spenders? Should we not rather monitor performance rather to police minutes at work? Something is seriously wrong with our HR system. The SABC is managed by litigation. We see these endless disciplinary hearings of trivial offences, but no word about the serious ones.

The SABC is a very sick organisation. Until we remove the cancer, it will not get any better. It will die. To manage by fear is to head for failure.

No communication from the top, no communication from the Board with its stake holders. This year it will even be a greater feast for the media writing about the SABC. One would think that the official broadcaster of the WC would have a better attitude towards its employees.

ALUTA CONTINUA!!!!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

There is absolutely no communication with staff. What I would like to know is why is Robin Nicholson back? Why is Anton Heunis back? What is really going on at the SABC? Playing political games????? Do we still have a future at the SABC. What is the Company Secretary doing? Why do they not appoint a Records Manager? Everything is just a total mess.

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