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DENOSA takes North West Department of Health to court over non-payment of OSD
By Paul Motsepe, DENOSA Legal Manager
DENOSA took the Department of Health in North West province to the Labour Court on 21 October for contempt of court order dated 04 August 2010 to pay nurses Occupation-Specific Dispensation (OSD).
The Labour Court has ordered the Department to the hearing on 21 October and to give reasons as to why the department should not be held in contempt of court order and be sanctioned appropriately.
The MEC delivered an Affidavit explaining non-compliance with the court order and there are numerous issues that he raised in the affidavit that need clarified. For example, he cited that members (nurses) do not meet the requirements of OSD because they do not perform clinical work. Obviously, this is the matter that DENOSA will clarify the court about.
Since the order was issued in 2010, forcing government to comply and honour the OSD agreement, the government has not abided. Hundreds of nurses in province are affected by this in different ways. Some were translated incorrectly while others were never translated at all.
OSD stipulates that nurses must be remunerated appropriately and according to their experience and speciality. Government have since withheld payment of OSD to nurses. What needs to be clarified is that if the court orders immediate payment of these nurses, and retrospectively as we think it is only fair to do so, government must not be surprised and regard this as an extra financial cost to government when it is government itself that never did the right in the first place.
We will await the court ruling with baited breath; and we will share the outcome thereof with our members.
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