‘I have been victimised’: More than R4k ‘deducted’ from Gauteng EMS workers who refused unpaid overtime
· Citizen
Gauteng Emergency Medical Services (EMS) workers at the Hillbrow, Selby, and Mofolo bases allege R4 300 was taken from their pay after they refused to work beyond 160 hours a month without overtime pay.
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At least 17 were suspended or charged.
One Gauteng emergency medical worker told The Citizen he had stopped being afraid.
“I’ve already been their victim, so they victimised me already.”
He is one of at least 17 EMS workers who say they were punished for refusing to work unpaid overtime. The Gauteng Department of Health confirmed 21 officials had been charged.
We spoke to three of them. They asked us not to use their real names because they feared further action. In this article, we have called them Bongani, Sipho, and Lucky.
According to the three, money was taken from their pay. They were also suspended and charged.
They said it began when they stopped working after 160 hours in a month. Their colleagues at other bases said the same.
How the dispute began
EMS is an essential service, which means its workers are not allowed to strike. The workers work 12-hour shifts on a four-days-on, four-days-off system. Two of the four days are day shifts, and two are night shifts.
They said the roster regularly asked more of them than their official hours. The department’s overtime policy, which took effect in September 2024, sets the limit at 160 hours a month.
Lucky said he told management in writing in late 2024 that he would work only 160 hours. Hillbrow and Mofolo employees wrote a collective letter on 1 June 2026 saying the same.
The department replied the next day, warning that leaving a shift without written approval could be treated as misconduct.
By late June, some workers had been suspended. The department later issued two “final ultimatum” memos. In August, the suspensions were lifted, but the charges stayed.
Some of the workers were set to appear on their charges on Wednesday.
More than R4k taken from EMS employees’ pay
Lucky said the department docked his pay for two days in each of four months. He said the total came to R4 300.
“There’s money gone off my salary. Nothing was explained to me,” he said.
Meanwhile, another worker, Bongani said his June pay was docked by the same amount.
According to Bongani, he did not receive any explanation either and only saw a payslip that lists several deductions labelled leave without pay.
Both men said they wrote grievances. Bongani said his went nowhere.
“They didn’t even resolve the matter”
Sipho said he was not docked, but confirmed that he knew that some of his colleagues’ pay was affected.
‘We never had overtime’
The men said overtime had not been paid for years.
Sipho said he had never received any overtime to begin with, a problem, Bongani said, was as old as his career.
“We never had overtime since I started working in the department.”
Lucky said his last overtime was during the Covid-19 period.
Sipho said the workers offered a compromise. They asked for time off once they reached 160 hours. This would mean that they would be paid for the hours they worked.
“If you don’t want to pay us the overtime, can we then have time off?”
He alleged that management refused.
What the overtime policy says
The workers based their stance on Personnel Circular 05 of 2024. The Citizen has seen the circular and the overtime policy it introduced.
The policy sets official duty hours at 40 hours a week. That works out to 160 hours a month.
On overtime, the policy is specific. “Overtime hours must be pre-arranged and agreed to in writing with the Line Manager.”
It also protects workers from being made to stay. “An employee may not be forced to work overtime without his/her written consent.”
The policy says managers may expect extra hours only in exceptional circumstances, such as emergencies.
It says this must not be because of factors like staff turnover.
The same policy has a shift-work clause. It says normal hours will not exceed 40 a week, and then adds a line for shift workers.
“Twelve hours per day if the employees perform shift work”
A 2019 circular we also saw allows a written agreement to permit 12-hour days without overtime pay.
It also sets a limit for monthly rosters, stating “the averaging of working hours should be limited to 160 hours”
The day EMS worked stopped working
According to the workers, they warned management first as this has been a long and ongoing struggle.
Lucky said he emailed senior officials in late 2024 to alert them to him not being willing to work longer than the stipulated hours. He alleged nobody replied to his emails at the time and a response only came when colleagues joined him in June 2026.
He said he should not be blamed for what happened after he left.
“I don’t think I’ll be responsible for whatever [is] happening in my absence.”
Sipho described his last day before suspension towards the end of June, saying he told his supervisor he would knock off at 11am.
He said the supervisor raised no objection. However, before he was supposed to leave, he was called into a meeting with senior managers who had arrived seemingly solely for him.
According to Sipho, one asked what overtime meant.
He gave a plain answer: “It is working beyond the allocated time without being compensated.”
In a joint letter to management, the workers said they would keep working ordinary hours. They said they were not on strike and were open to paid overtime.
Suspensions and charges
The workers had varying cases and suspension durations.
Sipho said he was suspended with pay for the whole of July, while Lucky was suspended from late June until early August.
A suspension letter seen by The Citizen claimed Lucky had failed to complete a rostered shift and had neglected his duty to respond to emergency calls.
A later letter lifted the suspension. It said the letter must not be taken as the matter being finalised.
The men said they faced different charges.
Sipho said his was gross misconduct. Bongani and Lucky said theirs was gross insubordination.
The department denies threatening anyone with dismissal. But its own memos, which has been seen by The Citizen, warns of it.
The 2 June letter to Hillbrow staff said leaving a shift without written approval could lead to “up to and including summary dismissal”.
The 9 June “final ultimatum” said the same and added that expedited hearings were possible, “which may result in dismissal”.
Unions, the bargaining council and the health regulator
The men said their unions did not help them.
“My union said I need to go and plead guilty on the matter,” said Sipho. He put it bluntly: “The unions are the ones that have failed us in this matter.”
Bongani echoed Sipho’s sentiments, saying, “We feel [the] unions [are] selling us out”.
The overtime policy has its own dispute clause. It says disputes must first be settled inside the department by labour relations. If they are not settled, they go to the bargaining council.
Sipho said the group asked labour relations to take that step.
He said an official told them the choice was theirs.
He said the workers were later reported to the Health Professions Council of South Africa, which he believed was the wrong forum.
“HPCSA has got no jurisdiction towards this matter.”
‘I’ve never abandoned a patient’
Sipho said the group knew they worked in an essential service but rejected the idea that they put patients at risk. Lucky said he made sure patients were safe, even after handing them over.
“I’ve never abandoned a patient.”
What the department said
The department first wrote to the workers on 2 June 2026. In it, it said their concerns were “legitimate and important” and that the letter was not a hostile or punitive measure.
It argued that Circular 05 could not stand alone.
The department also said a single circular “cannot override, suspend, or supersede a binding arbitration award”.
The workers asked for copies of those awards on 5 June. The files we received did not include them.
We asked the department for fresh comment. It pointed us to a statement issued on 23 September where department spokesperson Steve Mabona said: “Contrary to reports, the department confirms that there are currently no EMS officials who are suspended”.
The statement matches the workers’ accounts that their suspensions were lifted in August
“21 officials have been issued with charge sheets for alleged dereliction of duty after failing to complete their scheduled working hours as stipulated in their contracts and shift rosters,” Mabona clarified.
He added that overtime and averaging of hours followed the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. It said no-work-no-pay applied where staff did not report.
Furthermore, Mabona said the matter was reported to the HPCSA over possible breaches of professional and ethical rules.
He said EMS was reviewing its working hours policy.
DA calls for an investigation
The DA also weighed in.
In a statement dated 23 September, the party’s Gauteng health spokesperson, Madeleine Hicklin, called on Health MEC Faith Mazibuko to step in.
According to Hicklin, workers told the DA the roster could add 20 to 25 hours a month without pay.
She said the department should fix how it schedules staff.
“Instead of implementing disciplinary action on frontline emergency workers, the department should have corrected its rostering system.”
She said extra hours had to be paid.
“If the department requires EMS personnel to work extra hours, it must properly record and compensate those hours.”