The South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu), representing many employees at Shoprite Checkers and its subsidiaries, said on Wednesday that nationwide industrial action would go ahead as planned on Thursday.
”The strike starts tomorrow,” said Thoko Mchunu, national secretary for the Shoprite Checkers shopstewards’ council.
”There will be pickets at all the outlets and marches on Friday to the different outlets where we will expect management to come and accept memorandums,” said Mchunu.
Outlets that would be affected included Shoprite Checkers, Hyperamas, OK Furniture, U-Save and Sentra stores.
Saccawu’s deputy general secretary, Mduduzi Mbongwe, speaking at a press conference in Johannesburg on Monday, said the dispute centred on conditions of employment for casual and flexi-workers.
”Saccawu has been engaging with Shoprite Checkers for seven months around compliance with the Wholesale and Retail Sectoral Determination Act of 2002, without any meaningful cooperation from Shoprite Checkers, who have been undermining gains for workers by drastically reducing the hours of work and therefore the income of non-fulltime workers,” said Mbongwe.
”The priority is to engage the company around casual workers.”
Other issues on the table relate to conditions of employment, minimum wages for hourly work, the right to choose retirement funds and ”problematic” clauses in contracts including HIV testing.
The Shoprite group said this week it was ”surprised and disappointed” that Saccawu had called for labour action.
It was disappointed because the union had led Shoprite to believe it might receive a positive response to the group’s latest comprehensive proposals to resolve the dispute.
Shoprite spokesperson Callie Burger said the proposals included among other benefits, an allowance for medical aid facilities and wage adjustments totalling an increase of more than 14% in wage costs.
”Many of the claims made in the union’s statement are blatantly untrue and designed to confuse the large number of casual and part-time workers who stand to benefit from the company’s latest offer,” said Burger.
”The company is nevertheless confident that the differences within Saccawu will soon be resolved and that the dispute will result in a negotiated settlement.”
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Communist Party and the African National Congress said they were all supporting the strike. — Sapa