The Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) on Monday said in a statement that it has offered to intervene in the Pick ‘n Pay strike under Section 150 of the Labour Relations Act.
The commission said that all parties have accepted its offer and are currently working on logistics.
The CCMA will be meeting the parties ”anytime from now on”, the statement said.
Pick ‘n Pay, which has been hit by a strike by 20 000 of its workers countrywide over better pay, reported that its stores were ”trading normally” on Monday, with the strike ”far more orderly” around the country.
Pick ‘n Pay’s share price was last quoted at R26,50 on the JSE Securities Exchange. At one
point, it reached a new all-time high of R27, surpassing the previous high of R26,90 reached on July 15.
The strike, which began on Friday, has seen some incidents of violent clashes between protesting workers, management and the police that have resulted in arrests and the stoppage of business in some Pick ‘n Pay stores around the country.
In a Monday update, Pick ‘n Pay said that although stores were trading normally, it had appealed to the South African Catering, Commercial and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) to intervene in the case of 10 particular stores — three in the Western Cape, six in Gauteng and one in the Eastern Cape — where striking workers’ behaviour had become unacceptable.
Protests at court
Meanwhile, noisy protesters chanted and toyi-toyied outside the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Monday during the court appearance of 50 Pick ‘n Pay employees arrested over the weekend at the Sea Point store.
The employees were arrested for defying an interdict preventing them from entering the store as part of their ongoing strike action.
Proceedings at both the Magistrate’s Court and the Cape Town Regional Court, across the road, were disrupted.
The 50 arrested people were divided into groups for the appearance before magistrate Herman van der Merwe, who explained their rights and warned them to appear in court again on August 29.
Each of the arrested men and women elected to appoint privately funded lawyers.
They face charges of contravening a court order.
On Monday, police had to intervene at several Gauteng stores where striking workers, in defiance of the court interdict, forced their way on to the shop floor and forcibly tried to close the stores.
Pick ‘n Pay management reacted angrily to these incidents, saying the strike action at the majority of stores was peaceful.
Strike ‘will continue’
The strike will continue until a settlement has been reached, Saccawu said on Monday.
”We will continue until there is a settlement between management and the workers,” Saccawu spokesperson Dumisane Dakile said.
Marches will take place in all the major centres in the country on Tuesday.
In Johannesburg, the march is expected to start at about 9am at the Eastgate Mall and proceed to Pick ‘n Pay’s headquarters in Kensington.
Dakile could not say how many people are expected to take part.
”They will come from 40 stores. But many were arrested, so I really don’t know.”
Dakile complained that workers were prevented from picketing at various stores in and around Johannesburg, including Daveyton, Eastgate, The Glen, Carlton Centre and Northgate.
”Our lawyers are still trying to sort it out. We don’t know what’s going on there.”
In response, Pick ‘n Pay chief executive Sean Summers said police had to intervene at these stores because the strikers were violating an interdict granted to the retailer. — Sapa, I-Net Bridge