DPSA Upgrading Of Clerks
DPSA Upgrading Of Clerks
Implementation of Grading Levels for Clerks
NUPSAW is receiving many enquiries regarding the upgrading of clerk posts which have recently been up-graded to level 5. The process has developed as follows: Benchmark job descriptions were done by a co-ordinat-ing committee from the Gauteng Provincial Department after which the jobs was then evaluated. A panel of mem-bers of various departments have done quality assurance on the evaluation results.
It was then found that the weight of all clerical jobs score a level 5 salary range. Meaning that even those clerks who were previously appointed as a level 2 or level 3 clerk, would be upgraded to level 5.
The posts of clerks are divided into five broad categories, namely Human Resource, Finance, Supply Chain Man-agement, Registry and General Administration Clerks.
In each department the executing authorities still have the power to manage his/her department and to define the posts to suit its particular needs, though, there is lim-ited scope to define unique clerk posts.
According to the DPSA diretive each department will
have to fund the upgrades from their own budget. Al-though NUPSAW support the upgrading we do not agree that it should be subjected to the availability of funds and we therefore insist that the Employer makes the money available to implement these upgrades.
Questions and comments by members:
COMMENT: “I phoned our regional finance office and the response I got was that only those on level 4 benefited and they were backdated from January.”
NUPSAW REPLIES: The clerks who are on level 2 and 3 are now also level 5 clerks, irrespective of their qualifications or experience.
COMMENT: Those who were on level 5,6 and 7 did not get an upgrade, hence they feel they have been hard done by their departments as they see this as discrimination.
NUPSAW REPLIES: The performance for a cleri-cal post lies on level 5, meaning that those clerks on lower levels actually lost out because the weight of the work they were doing was the same of the weight of the work on level 5.
COMMENT: Some of the beneficiaries of this up-grades were the beneficiaries about 2 to 3 years ago when they were upgraded to level 4. Now they have been upgraded to level 5 again in a space of 2 to 3 years without them applying or being interviewed. NUPSAW REPLIES: We should all be working closely together on securing a living wage for all and rejoicing when our less privilleged comrades are getting the chance to advance in their careers as well.
QUESTION: Are the posts of switchboard opera-tors also upgraded to level 5?
NUPSAW REPLIES: The Director General issued a directive on 2 October 2012 in which it was stipulated that switchboard operators/attendants are categorised under support staff and they are graded at level 4.