The city of Cape Town has denied there is a problem with its SAP payroll system after some workers downed tools when salaries were paid late last week.
While the city says last week`s delay was not caused by the payroll system, but by a delay at the bank, the SA Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) claimed there had not been a flawless pay run since around July last year.
Andre Stelzner, city director of enterprise resource planning business transformation, says there have been problems since the system went live in January 2003, but says the problems have mostly been administrative ones and not with the actual SAP system.
"Seven municipalities were amalgamated to form the Cape Town Unicity, which now employs 28 000 staff. The process of setting up the infrastructure has been a lengthy one, and when individuals don`t get paid on time, they understandably get upset.
"However, that doesn`t necessarily mean the system is at fault. The procurement module has had an error rate below of below 1% over the past year, which is in line with international standards," he says.
Responding to SAMWU`s claim that the system was unable to pay based on a 40-hour working week, Stelzner says the hold-up is not with the payroll module, but in finalising employees` work schedules.
"The city has come to an agreement with its workers for a 40-hour working week. However, time schedules are now being arranged so that municipal depots and individual teams work the same hours. Once this is done, the system will be changed to pay out a 40-hour week," he says.
Workers were paid 12 hours late on 27 January after the bank informed the city there would be a delay in the payment of salaries, because it was experiencing high volumes of electronic transactions. Some workers downed tools in frustration, but were persuaded by SAMWU to go back to work.
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