SHARON HAMMOND, Nelspruit | Thursday 3.45pm
THE South African Municipal Workers Union has threatened to take legal action against the Nelspruit city council after it signed a controversial deal that privatises the town’s waste and water services for the next 30 years.
Samwu spokesman, Steve Sihlangu, said on Thursday that if the council fails to suspend the R195-million deal and consult further with the union, it will charge the council with contravening the Labour Relations Act.
He said that in terms of the Act, workers’ contracts cannot be transferred to the private operator without their consent and that of the union and that job conditions have to stay the same or be improved.
The workers began operating with their new employer, the Greater Nelspruit Utility Company, as soon as the deal was signed on Monday. Sihlangu said the workers are opposed to their transfer as they have been told they will lose their pension and medical aid benefits.
“Workers stand to lose a lot of money through this,” he said. Samwu was also concerned that the council had not set up a monitoring body or system to bring tariffs in line with socio-economic realities of the Greater Nelspruit area. “The agreement is just another paper tiger with a lot of promises, but nothing to back them up,” said Sihlangu.
He said Samwu was not told that the deal with the consortium of South Africa’s Sivukile Holdings and Britain’s Biwater, would be signed on Monday. — African Eye News Service