An estimated 90 000 security guards from 13 unions will strike for two days from Thursday, South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) security industry coordinator Jackson Simon said on Thursday.
The figure is down from the 150 000 mooted on Wednesday.
There are about 283 700 registered guards in South Africa, working for 4 000 registered businesses.
Simon said workers were gathering at Beyers Naude Square in Johannesburg on Thursday, despite the rain, to catch trains to Pretoria to take part in a march to the departments of labour and safety and security.
He expected about 20 000 people to march. The strike was set to have started at 6am. By 8am it was not certain how effective the strike was.
The unions involved are Satawu, the National Security and Unqualified Workers’ Union, the Professional Transport Workers’ Union of South Africa, the Security Officer Civil Rights and Allied Workers’ Union, the South African Private Security Workers’ Union, the South African Cleaning, Security and Allied Workers’ Union, the United Private Sector Workers’ Union, the Protectors Workers’ Union, the Food, Cleaning and Security Workers’ Union and the South African National Security Officers’ Forum.
Satawu represents about 60 000 guards and the National Security and Unqualified Workers’ Union about 13 000.
The employer organisations involved are the South African National Security Employers’ Association, the Security Services Employers’ Organisation, the Western Cape Security Association, the Northern Province Security Association, and the South African Intruders Democratic Security Association.
The strike — in six provinces — is for higher wages and better working conditions, including the right to lunch breaks and the use of a toilet without being charged for deserting a position while on duty.
”This strike is about wages and some other aspects of being a human being,” the National Security and Unqualified Workers’ Union’s Moses Memela said at a press briefing on the action in Johannesburg.
The industrial action in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the North West, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal follows failed wage negotiations that started in October last year. Unions are demanding an 11% across-the-board increase and an additional 4% increase for the lowest-paid workers.
An average urban grade-C security guard earns about R2 400 a month — or R101 a 12-hour shift.
The lowest-paid rural guard, grade E, takes home just R1 080. Guards routinely work 12-hour shifts, six days out of every eight.
Satawu and its fellow unions also want their night allowance increased from R2 to R3,50 and their cleaning allowance from R8 to R15.
They are demanding four months of fully employer-paid maternity leave, five days’ study leave a year, and an increase in the provident fund.
Security guards also want a R500 service benefit for every five years of work completed, R1 000 for every decade and R5 000 for every 20 years of service.
Guards in the three Cape provinces will strike on Monday and Tuesday, with KwaZulu-Natal workers joining for a repeat strike.
Should a settlement not be reached by then, workers will strike indefinitely from April 3. – Sapa