Limpopo tomato giant ZZ2 will this week begin the process of reinstating hundreds of workers it fired in April after they went on strike. This comes after the company’s CEO, Tommy van Zyl, reached a settlement with the dismissed workers in Polokwane last Monday.
The Mail & Guardian reported last week on the attack Blade Nzimande, general secretary of the South African Communist Party, launched against ZZ2. Nzimande said in the party’s monthly Internet newsletter, Umsebenzi, the SACP would use its annual ”Red October” campaign to deal with the plight of the dismissed workers.
Despite the fact that reinstated workers will not receive any compensation for the months they were not employed by ZZ2, the settlement brings to an end a battle over the minimum wage law. The SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) came out strongly in support of the workers and against the tomato company after the dismissals, saying its labour practices left much to be desired.
ZZ2 maintained that its dismissal of 1 102 labourers after an illegal strike was fair. The workers went on strike because they were unhappy about deductions from the newly promulgated minimum wage that left them with less money than before.
The South African Agricultural Plantation and Allied Workers Union (Saapawu), which represented some of the dismissed workers, lodged a complaint of unfair dismissal with the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration in May.
The case dragged on until the parties reached an agreement this week. Van Zyl told the M&G that ZZ2 is happy it could reach an agreement with the workers. ”This agreement is in the interest of good labour relations and serves the interests of the province,” he said.
However, not all the dismissed workers will receive their jobs back as the settlement allows for certain criteria to be met before a worker can be reinstated. Van Zyl said, though, that the company will reinstate as many workers as possible.
In terms of the settlement all the dismissed workers may reapply for work, but they will only be reinstated if there are vacant posts available. Length of service before the April dismissals, as well as the workers’ particular skills, will also be taken into consideration.
”We are pleased the people will be able to return to their job and look after their families,” Sunnyboy Ngo-beni, Saapawu’s national organiser told the M&G. ”They have struggled the past few months.”
A joint press statement by the African National Congress, Saapawu, Cosatu and ZZ2 says that accusations that ZZ2 refused to implement minimum wage legislation were false. In fact, the company chose not even to apply to the Department of Labour for any variations or exemptions on minimum-wage legislation.
”ZZ2’s role in contributing towards a stable, political, physical, economic and social environment is widely recognised,” the statement read.
It also says the company’s contribution ”in the field of rural reconstruction and development is visible and widely appreciated. Any disruption of ZZ2’s programmes and projects will have a serious negative effect on all the stakeholders.”