IEC Treatment of its Staff Leaves Something to be Desired

Sent Thu 19/05/2011 08:33.

Published in The Times, Johannesburg, Friday May 20 2011 as “IEC Staff Not Well Treated”.

Published in The Star, Johannesburg, Monday May 23 2011 as “IEC Treated Staff Poorly”.

I was a Party Agent (what cousin Julius would call a "Bloody Agent") supervising the election at the Bet David polling station in Morningside from the start to 11:00, and later for counting from 18:30.

Except for only starting the count about 20:45, the IEC officials there behaved wonderfully.

However, I have misgivings about the way their employer treated them.  These people had typically got up at 04:00 to be at the polling station by six, and the majority left after midnight (the Presiding Officer and her deputies stayed on until after 1 a.m).  Doesn't the Labour Relations Act have something to say about a shift of 18-hours plus?

The IEC provided no food or drink for its staff.  I understood that they were given an allowance for the purpose, but considering that they were expected to be present the whole time except for toilet breaks, what exactly were they expected to do?  The DA provided some food, but hardly enough for a whole team.

But here is the ultimate indignity:  The IEC has been advertising for people to come out and vote, yet they made no arrangements for their own staff who were running the polling station!  You would have thought Special Votes would be organised as a matter of course, but no: it seems they were just given a vague promise that they could vote at the polling station they were running –nonsense, of course, as one has to vote in the ward where one lives.

I am sad that these dedicated people who enable us all to vote are treated so poorly by our IEC, an organisation held in high esteem worldwide.  Perhaps the IEC would care to respond?

[It didn't]