Employers can no longer retrench workers to make way for better-skilled employees without making adequate training opportunities available, the Food and Allied Workers Union (Fawu) said on Monday.
Fawu secretary general Derrick Cele told journalists on Monday his union won a case before the Cape Labour Court on Friday in which acting Judge Patrick Gamble had found that South African Breweries (SAB) had wrongly dismissed 115 Fawu members from its Newlands plant in Cape Town between May and August 2001.
”The union is vindicated in its claim that these workers were unfairly dismissed. It is our view that justice is indeed done,” Cele said.
In his judgement, Gamble said SAB had ”completely ignored” certain selection criteria for retrenchments contained in a collective agreement binding the two parties.
”The effect was that some of the company’s most loyal and longest-serving employees were dismissed. Many of those were people who had helped the company attain its dominance in the local beer market and to build up the extraordinary wealth with which it has been able to aggressively pursue its international acquisitions.
”Workers would rightfully have reasons to be aggrieved by their treatment,” Gamble wrote.
At issue was SAB’s attempts to improve the skills of its workforce to attain ”world-class manufacturing” standards.
The company introduced certain educational and skills standards workers had to meet and then required all employees essentially to reapply for their jobs, Fawu lawyer Thabo Leholo said.
He added that 138 employees out of about 500 failed to make the grade and were retrenched.
Before they were let go, several were required to train their replacements.
Others have since been recalled as casual labour to perform work similar to their old jobs.
Cele added the case was important for Fawu members at two other SAB plants in Durban and Pretoria where the company planned to retrench about 120 workers each.
”We are happy that we won this case,” Cele said.
”Fifty-four members will be compensated with nine months’ pay [and] 61 workers will be reinstated respectively.”
But the victory could not undo the harm done to many of the families affected.
Six workers and their families have been evicted from their homes and others face losing their houses. Several have had furniture repossessed. Nine died during the period and several marriages collapsed.
”Children that used to study under electricity are today studying using candles in shacks,” Cele added.
Union officials made it clear they are not opposed to concepts such as ”world class manufacturing” and have reached satisfactory agreements with companies such as Nestle and Amalgamated Bottling Industries on the subject.
”Fawu supports measures that will enhance the skills of workers. We support the Skills Development Act fully … We expected the company to understand our past and not act against those subjected to bantu education. Coupled to this, ‘past experience on the job’ must be valued appropriately.” — Sapa