Education
- Whether her Department made any work arrangements to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections, such as allowing staff to work remotely and/or on a rotational basis, at its (a) head office and (b) district offices in the period June 2020 to February 2021; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- whether her Department took a decision to stop the work arrangements that had been implemented to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection at its offices by allowing staff to work remotely and/or on a rotational basis; if so, what are the relevant details;
- what is the number of workers at its (a) head office and (b) district offices who contracted COVID-19 from March 2020 to date and (c) how many workers have died;
- what is the number of workers at its (a) head office and (b) district offices who (i) have comorbidities, (ii) are over the age of 60 years and (iii) are working from the office?
(1) The Western Cape Education Department placed a high premium on the health of staff during this period. Whilst the health of the staff was not compromised, by putting into place the necessary safety protocols, operational requirements also were regarded as important. Due to the operational requirements of some components in the department it was not possible to work from home. If certain staff were requested to work from home the operational requirements would have been compromised. This would have meant that schools would have been deprived of the necessary support. As a result, in order to balance operational requirements with staff safety the correct protocols were put into place and certain staff were able to work remotely.
(2) Some staff members were allowed to work remotely with a view to reducing the risk of COVID-19 infections. There were some components in the department that could not work remotely given the operational demands of the Department. In these cases, safety protocols were implemented. As mentioned above, if work arrangements were changed for essential staff, the Department’s operational mandate would have been severely compromised which would have hampered the effective functioning of schools as well as districts and head office. Every attempt was made to ensure the safety of staff through adhering to the safety protocols.
(3) As at 5 April 2021:
(a) 30
(b) 153
(c) 11 (Head Office and district offices)
(4)
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|
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| 48 | 70 |
| 139 | 209 |
- Accommodation at home or office was done in terms of the relevant Circular from the Director-General. Where employees could not work from home, they were accommodated in the workplace with special health measures (e.g. additional sanitising). Employees over 60 years were treated similarly, and a number opted to be at the workplace, following strict health and safety protocols.
