NGOs Fight to ‘Hang On’ to Good Staff

Wednesday, July 15, 2009 – 11:32

High staff turnover due to a lack of adequate subsidisation by Government, plagues many South African NGOs, which struggle to provide the necessary services to communities in need. In the Eastern Cape subsidies used to pay social workers have not been increased in two years, while social auxiliary workers are subsidised on the Department of Social Development’s 2002 scales

Comments

By Anonymous

Sun 6 Feb, 2011 – 10:33

what is the difference between NGO’S and Gorvement Social Workers?

By Anonymous

Wed 17 Nov, 2010 – 10:47

I am a senior social worker in the NGO field. When i started to work in South Africa 8 years ago, i started with a salary of R2300 per month???At that stage a road sweeper were earning more than myself. I am outraged and have on many occasions discussed the matters in the above article. The NGO social worker is left without any financial support. We recieve no 13 th cheques or bonusses at my organisation. Our organisation this year did not want to sign our TPA with the department but was told that if we don’t sign, we don’t get paid. When goverment workers strike, they get a raise??? The goverment is unrealistic about fundraising. We work in poor communities. We dont even succeed in raising enough funds for our running costs. I , as a proffesional social worker, must attend fundraising events on Saturdays, which is disgusting. I was not trained to fundraise on weekends. The caseloads are getting more and more and whether or not the goverment sector wants to know this, we cannot go on like this. I now, as a senior social worker only get a bruto salary of R8000. no bonus, no 13th cheque etc. When will this change???i tried to go to Helen Zille but was stopped by my directors. I still feel that all NGO workers must join unions and we must start to strike. The goverment workers just recently stricked and all got a R1000 increase in salaries and other benefits. THIS MUST STOP!!!!

By Anonymous

Sat 2 Oct, 2010 – 14:58

sihle is a level two social work student in the university of zululand, basically the social work profession is the calling that emerges into the individual’s concience to desire to help people. My concern in the issue of salary that is why do the good social workers are constantly making some remarkable complian regarding their salaries. Social work profession is it stiil a calling? or it just something that we engage with in sake of earning better salaries and driving very a expensive cars but it seems as if it no long direct to an such purpose.

By zj

Thu 16 Jul, 2009 – 17:03

Whilst salary is important in retaining staff, other issues such as general working conditions and staff development cannot be overlooked. I am a social worker, and worked for NGO’s for 2 years. I hold a Masters degree and earned the same salary as a newly qualified social workers. There is no support for further study, no flexibile hours for personal or professional development, no opportunities to enagage in work outside the immediate job description (such as research). There is in an enormous caseload- as many as 500 clients to one social worker, no debriefing or emotional support to the SW and very little opportunity to enagage in the strategic vision and plan of the organisation. With such heavy grunt work and poor pay (R 91 000 pa ctc) I did the logical thing- left for a better position.

High staff turnover due to a lack of adequate subsidisation by Government, plagues many South African NGOs, that struggle to provide the necessary services to communities in need.

In the Eastern Cape subsidies used to pay social workers have not been increased in two years, while social auxiliary workers are subsidised on the Department of Social Development’s 2002 scales.

Government pays its social workers on average around 37% higher salaries. In 2008, the Department of Social Development paid its social auxiliary workers a starting salary of R64 410 per annum while NGOs received subsidies of R35 749. Principle social workers were paid R174 243 per annum, while the subsidies amounted to R112 625.67. Last year social workers received a small increase from R75 947.28 to R79 500 per annum, but even this can not compare to the Department’s salaries of R117 501.

This, says Christian Social Council (CMR) Eastern Cape director, Corné Erasmus, results in a high staff turnover. “There is a shortage of social workers in South Africa. The government is paying good salaries to its social work staff members. Social workers are leaving the NGO sector to work for the Government”, she says.

Service delivery

Erasmus says the high turnover has a very negative impact on an NGO’s service delivery as communities do not benefit when there is no continuity.

She says some NGOs are unable to fill their vacancies for months. When they do manage to fill a position, it is usually a beginner who requires training before they are equipped to do the job properly. “It is a continuous training process, once they are trained, it usually takes about six months before they leave to work for the Government.”

Appeal for equality

Since the services delivered by the NGO sector are done on behalf of the Department of Social Development, NGOs have appealed to the relevant provincial bodies for sufficient financial compensation. They feel it should be a 100% subsidy for the salaries of social workers based on the department’s current salary scales.

“The NGO and Government social workers are actually doing more or less the same work, but they are not getting equal pay”, says Erasmus. She says the NGOs try and match the salaries offered by Government as much as possible, but the money has to come from other sources which impacts the operations of the organisations.

Further to this, NGOs in different provinces receive different subsidies. Erasmus says the sector is also fighting to equalise the subsidies in all provinces.

Iveda Smith, the registrar and CEO of the South African Council for Social Service Profession says it is a reality that social workers migrate from NGOs to government for better salaries and working conditions, but she adds: “But it is not always the only reason, sometimes it is also about personal development and career pathing.”

Smith says the Council is not in a position to comment on the subsidies as it is not involved and has no knowledge of the content of service level agreements between the NGO sector and Government.

Policy shortcomings

The Policy on Financial Awards for Service Providers (PFASP) which the Government introduced to regulate the relationship between itself and NGOs, has worsened the problem. The policy expects a high standard of service delivery from NGOs but provides less funding to do so.

The PFASP accuses NGOs of poor work and not distributing their services equally, but it is impossible for NGOs to do so without sufficient funding. The policy fails to address the problem of insufficient funding.

In order to raise additional funding, the policy suggests that NGOs charge fees for their services, which is impossible since the services are provided to poor and marginalised people who have no ability to pay fees.

The National Welfare Forum wants the PFASP to acknowledge that there is insufficient funding for NGOs and demands equal pay for equal work.

This article was prepared by Chana Viljoen for the National Welfare Forum and was first published on their website www.forum.org.za on 30 June 2009. It is republished here with their permission.

Author(s):

Chana Viljoen