Strike action by staff of beauty and pharmacy retailer Clicks who are members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) was under way across the country on Friday, although most stores were open, both the union and New Clicks said.
Clicks is part of the listed New Clicks Holdings group.
Out of a total of 5 100 Clicks staff nationwide, approximately 2 900 are Saccawu members.
Saccawu claimed on Friday that all of these members had heeded its call to strike. New Clicks, meanwhile, said that it had not yet determined the actual numbers to have stayed away.
Saccawu notified New Clicks of the planned strike on Wednesday following a deadlock over wage negotiations that have lasted five months. Clicks has offered a wage increase of R225 per month, an 8,8% rise over 2004 levels, while the union is demanding a R300 or 10% wage hike.
New Clicks spokesperson Don Bowden said that due to prior agreements with staff, all three of New Clicks’ national distribution centres were operating on Friday. Most Clicks branch stores were also open, thanks to the company having arranged a number of contract staff on Thursday ahead of the strike.
“There has been a lot of pre-planning on the part of Clicks, and branch managers are in place,” said Bowden. “With the contract staff and branch managers, the stayaway is not crippling the branches. But it is still early and the company is busy confirming the actual number of staff who have not turned up for work.”
New Clicks would provide an update on the impact of the strike later in the day, he added.
Saccawu national organiser Thabo Mahlangu said he does not expect the strike to last more than a week.
“We are pleased that our members have heeded our strike call and that members of the community are also supporting us by not going to Clicks stores,” Mahlangu said. “Negotiations with the company have stopped and we are saying that the ball is in management’s court to come back to the negotiating table. This, of course, will determine the duration of the strike.”
Mahlangu said that union representatives will meet on Monday to access the impact of the strike.
By 12.10pm local time, New Clicks shares were 0,6% or five cents lower, last quoted on the JSE at R8 from R8,05 at Thursday’s close, with about 95 584 shares having changed hands so far. This compares with the 2,1% decline in the FTSE-JSE general retailers’ index (J052) over the morning, and the 1.9% fall in the FTSE-JSE food and drug retailers’ index (J063). — I-Net Bridge