25 Feb 2015

The part-time employment that government intends to undertake in the public service is not a strategy to replace permanent employment.

The Director of Public Service Management (DPSM), Ms Ruth Maphorisa, clarified this when addressing the media on Tuesday (February 24). DPSM placed an advert in the DailyNews early February calling for applications for temporary employment.

The advert that invited Batswana to apply for part-time employment in the public service, Ms Maphorisa said, aimed at addressing challenges of unemployment and also to meet the existing needs within the public service. 

Following the placement of the advert, DPSM had been getting a number of enquiries as to whether that was the way government was trying to create employment for the unemployed youth.

“But, I would like to indicate that part-time employment is not anything that is peculiar to this country. Over and above, the Public Service Act provides for different ways of employment within the public service and part-time employment is one such,” she said. This initiative, Ms Maphorisa said, was also triggered by the amount of money that government spent on overtime.

During the last financial year, she said over P900 million was spent on overtime and “we believe that part of this overtime can be utilised better.” 

“It can simply mean that officers are overworked, they work excessive hours and therefore we have to deal with that in terms of reducing the number of hours to a reasonable amount that will allow them to be productive at the end of the day.”

Secondly, she said, “It means there are certain times where we need more hands than you have in the normal staffing that you would require, because some of these jobs can be seasonal, especially if you look at areas like Agriculture. There are certain times of the year termed to be peak periods, so we believe that is the time when you can bring in a number of people to assist.” 

She also indicated that due to limited skills within the economy, there were certain areas where government would have wanted to recruit more officers, especially specialists in the health sector, but was unable to do so.

“We do have people who are willing to offer part-time services over and above where they are currently engaged,” she added. Part-time employment, Ms Maphorisa said, could serve different purposes within the public service, adding that “we already have a bloated public service and therefore it is also an issue that we do not want to expand the wage bill beyond what it is right now.”

Through part-time, she said, “we can reduce overtime and be able to make use of the skills that are out there, but we are not able to utilize them during the normal working hours.”

This initiative, she said, could also be an opportunity to extend government services beyond the hours that were currently provided. Ms Maphorisa said there had also been a call from the public pleading for certain services to be offered even during weekends, adding that offering part-time employment would also provide an opportunity to extend government services. ENDS