To "serve and protect" the saying used by every police force around the world and rightly so as that is their duty and what they signed up for. I guess this line can only be used in the movies these days. This morning the City Of Johannesburg was a proper shit show with the traffic police going on strike. They wet on strike in uniform using the city's own police vehicles and the strikers were also armed carrying their department issued pistols.
Firstly they are an essential service so strike action is forbidden by law yet they are the law and a law unto them selves. You may be wondering what has got them so angered and it is not the normal stuff we would expect. The City Of Johannesburg has been making austerity cuts to their budgets and the overtime hours have been cut in half.
The overtime is not your salary and is seen as a bonus/perk by many when it is available. The police have had their over time cut by 50% meaning this could affect their take home package by as much as $500 monthly. My first thought on this was the they are over paid and secondly are ungrateful so and so's for taking overtime for granted. I would rather see more police officers hired than have less working longer hours.
This was an illegal strike that affected the people they are employed to serve and protect by disrupting rush hour traffic blocking the free ways. If ay other group did this type of thig they would be rightfully arrested and charged yet even with a court ruling expected tomorrow they are unlikely to face any charges.
They should all be fired as discipline is what maintains law and order setting an example for any others who want to copy this strike. On this case the law is not on their side and all for feeling entitled for more over time pay. The public in SA has had to employ their own private police force by having neighborhood security companies tend to our every day security needs. I would not even know what the police number is in SA as they would not be my first call for help.
Not that long ago when I was running a bicycle assembly plant I had a large work force and had to deal with "go slow" periods and sabotage so over time was guaranteed except I fired over 100 staff in one evening of madness and it fixed the problem immediately. If you let something fester like being able to steal money through working slow and expecting more for the same production then you will be pushed out of business and there will be no jobs for anyone. This unfortunately is an African mentality and not surprisingly more than 50% of the population is unemployed in SA.
If there is no action taken against the police tomorrow the we can see other essential workers doing the same thing in the weeks that follow. This is always a me fist and not your job or country first. These are entitled individuals armed with a badge and that is the worst kind. Every bribe I have been asked to pay has been from a traffic cop so you can understand why the over time is a big deal and guess bribes will be back in the spot light to cover their losses.
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Wow! Doing something that is illegal to do doesn't seem to matter to anyone these days. I detest OT (I know it's different depending on the job).
My brother was in law enforcement here. A lot of his years, especially the early ones, he worked a ton of OT, but normally, it wasn't in the department, although that was the connection, it was other companies that wanted the help, so going slow on the regular part of the job would not have helped.
You would think in places like that where 50 percent of the folks were out of work, people wouldn't play with the chance of losing their jobs.
Yes nothing is obvious here with the main problem being they think they are so smart. I knew what work was being done by the noise so they never stood a chance.
The traffic police are essential service providers and their strike action put the safety and security of citizens at risk.