Shoprite on Monday condemned “in the strongest terms” incidents of violence and vandalism allegedly involving striking members of the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union at some of its stores in the Eastern and Western Cape over the last 48 hours.
The group’s human resources director, Callie Burger, charged that the group was facing “a deliberate campaign of violence” following the union’s failure to mobilise widespread support for its wage dispute over the last five months of wage negotiations.
Late on Friday afternoon, the company was granted an order by the Labour Court prohibiting in-store picketing and requiring striking workers to remain at least 25m from the entrance of all Shoprite stores and shopping centres.
The Labour Court has suspended certain rules imposed on the company by the Commission for Conciliation and Mediation Arbitration.
These rules had forced Shoprite to accept noisy in-store demonstrations, which in many cases had led to the disruption of businesses not connected with Shoprite, as well as prompting angry confrontations between strikers and members of the public.
The court order also prohibits the intimidation and harassment of customers and staff.
According to Burger, over the past three days, the South African Police Service attended to incidents at over 40 of the group’s nearly 600 stores around the country. There had been numerous arrests for offences including public disorder, assault, arson, robbery and malicious damage to property, he said.
He added that the company had carefully recorded and documented many of the incidents and the union members involved could expect to face the most severe disciplinary action if found guilty of criminal acts or strike misconduct.
The evidence will also be made available to police investigators to assist prosecutors to secure criminal convictions.
Statements taken from arrested workers confirmed that they were acting on instructions of the trade union representatives, Burger said.
In localised areas in the Eastern Cape, Salt River and Khayelitsha, Shoprite had temporarily closed stores where it believed this would help defuse a current threat to community safety.
The future viability of the stores that had been subject to arson attacks and looting will be reviewed in due course but, at this stage, it seems that certain of these stores are unlikely to re-open, Burger added.
“The company is also now assessing the damage caused by union members and expects to launch civil action against the union shortly.” — I-Net Bridge