Gauteng South Africa Health starts paying doctors’ overtime
ANA
Hundreds of aggrieved doctors were threatening to stop working at night, on weekends and on public holidays.
The Gauteng Department of Health said today it will begin the process of paying overtime claims for hundreds of doctors in the province.
Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng health spokesperson, Jack Bloom, said on Sunday that many doctors at provincial state hospitals had not been paid for overtime and had been told that the department does not have money to pay them.
Towards the end of the 2017/2018 financial year, the department began tightening internal controls in the payments to employees that were not of a salary nature, such as overtime, until all such payments were verified as being valid and authentic.
Bloom said that he received reports that overtime had not been paid to doctors at the Tembisa, Leratong and Yusuf Dadoo hospitals and probably other hospitals as well. He said that aggrieved doctors were threatening to stop working at night, on weekends and on public holidays.
“This was done to avoid over spending on compensation of employees, which has been increasing in the past years. This action was also necessary for management to curb unauthorised expenditure,” the department said in a statement.
“After learning that there were employees who were not paid overtime corrective measures were taken and all those who provided their services will be paid by the 30th of April.”
The department said that all the doctors owed for overtime have been advised to contact their hospital chief executives or contact head office should they experience further challenges.
– African News Agency (ANA)
