/ 9 April 2001

ESKOM ON ‘NEO-RACISM’ CHARGE

MWU Solidarity, a majority white member trade union, will take Eskom to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration in Cape Town on Monday on a charge of neo-racism. The dispute concerns car benefits allocated only to black workers, and their white colleagues in the same job categories, MWU Solidarity representative Dirk Hermann said in a statement. Eskom contends that black people are more marketable and additional benefits should be granted to them to retain their services, Hermann said. This court case follows an announcement earlier this week that MWU Solidarity has set aside R500_000 for test cases concerning what it calls neo-racism.