The South African Police Service has put in place contingency plans at all 10111 Call Centres to ensure that emergency calls are answered and responded to as a priority.
“These contingency plans are tried and tested as they were implemented successfully during the strike last month and proved effective,” SAPS spokesperson Major General Sally de Beer said on Thursday.
In the past, SAPS management had deployed ununiformed police to fill the positions vacated by striking employees at the call centres.
De Beer went on to stress that the hotline is intended for crime-related emergency purposes only.
“We caution against people making unnecessary or hoax calls to the 10111 number and from phoning the number to ‘test’ if operators are working as this places a strain on the queuing system.”
SAPS contingency plans follows the withdrawal of the South African Police Union (SAPU) from Commission of Conciliation‚ Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) negotiations.
SAPU is demanding salary increases from level 5 to level 7 which as recommended by a task team in 2013.
SAPU and the SAPS management had initially agreed to let the mediation process unfold at the CCMA‚ thus resulting in the strike being temporarily postponed.
However, the union withdrew from the negotiations after it accused SAPS management of delaying the speedy resolution of this issue by rejecting any proposal tabled by the CCMA commissioner.
As such the workers will resume with their strike action at SAPS 10111 Call Centres this morning.
The union has also threatened that if no progress had been made by August 11‚ they would call for unions under the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) to join in the strike in solidarity.
The strike action is regarded as a protected strike by SAPU affiliated Public Service Act employees at 10111 Call Centres but “no work no pay” is applicable.
De Beer said the police management remains committed to the negotiation process through the applicable platforms. - SAnews.gov.za
