The South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) will on Tuesday serve notice for secondary strikes in support of the wage demands of security guards, union leaders said.
”We will be serving notice tomorrow [Tuesday] for secondary strikes from other sectors of Satawu,” the union’s security industry spokesperson, Jackson Simon, said on Monday.
He said these strikes would take place in, among others, the rail sector, the taxi industry, road freight, cleaning and passenger services.
”They will be embarking on strike in support of the demands of the security guards,” he said.
Meanwhile, the security employers’ organisation, Sansea, said it would ask Minister of Labour Membathisi Mdladlana to institute an investigation by the Employment Conditions Commission (ECC) into the security industry.
At a meeting in Pretoria, the minister said he had not been made aware of this request. He took the opportunity to chide parties involved in the strike for speaking to him through the media.
Mdladlana said he could not simply decide to launch such a probe without the involvement of the industry’s major players.
The minister said that of the 211 000 registered security employees, less than 30% were represented by Satawu and the 14 unions who had accepted the employer’s 8% wage increase offer. Satawu was still holding out for 11%.
”In order to have clout in any bargaining system, we need to have a representation of 50 plus one percent of the sector. The majority of security sector workers are not unionists.
”What we would have done [if that were the case] is have them sit and negotiate and come to an agreement that an investigation into the sector be launched,” said the minister.
Mdladlana said a way to force security sector groups into negotiating was needed to resolve the current dispute.
”We need some mechanism to force the parties to negotiate. South Africans may now realise that the law is so flexible that the minister is now complaining.
”People are constantly calling on the minister to intervene in criminal activities. What do they mean when they say intervene?” he told reporters.
He was responding to perceptions that neither he nor his department were intervening in the dispute between Satawu and employers.
”We have been urging and waiting for the parties to come to the table and negotiate,” Mdladlana said.
The minister added that the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, which fell under the ambit of the department, was one of the department’s interventions in the dispute.
It was costing both the department and taxpayers substantial amounts of money when they were being forced to wait for voluntary involvement in negotiations. — Sapa