Teachers Working From Home Must Now Report For Work

The Department of Basic Education has summoned all teachers who were granted permission to work from home to report for duty today.

Department spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga said thay more than 22 000 teachers were granted permission to work from home due to high risk factors of severe Covid-19, conditions considered as co-morbidities.

However he said since the country had gone down to alert level 1, the risk had dropped to low, hence the risk for those teachers had reduced.

“The affected people will therefore have to report for duty with effect from today. If, however, some individuals are still not well, they are advised to follow the normal sick leave protocols.”

Western Cape Education Department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond said the regulations governing alert level 1 had not yet been gazetted and the WCED had not yet received any formal communication on the matter.

But it was decided that all such staff members must be back at work by no later than Monday, September 28.

Some Teacher unions said that while their members were ready to head back to the classroom on Monday, educators concerned about their safety said that they would push back if the risk of infection increased.