An urgent court interdict ordering workers on the Gautrain rapid rail link back to work was granted on Wednesday, Bombela Civils Joint Venture (CJV) said.
”Bombela CJV was granted an urgent interdict this morning declaring the Gautrain workers’ strike action to be unprotected and ordering workers on strike to cease such unprotected strike action and return to work,” the concessionaire said in a statement.
Bombela has issued a number of ultimatums to workers to cease the unprotected strike action and return to work or face dismissal.
”Should the striking workers fail to heed the court interdict and the ultimatums issued by Bombela CJV, they are unlikely to enjoy any protection from the courts if they are dismissed.”
Construction workers employed on the Gautrain project downed tools at all major sites on Tuesday, demanding an R8-per-hour increase across the board. This amounted to a 73% increase in the minimum rate of pay.
Bombela CVJ said the strike challenged and ignored various national industry-level agreements on which the workers’ terms and conditions of employment were based.
”These agreements have been negotiated and agreed upon at various forums between organised labour and industry representatives and gazetted by the minister of labour,” the statement said.
The agreements are binding and applicable until 2009 for the civil industry and 2010 for the MEI (mechanical, electrical and instrumentation) industry.
”Bombela CJV is not willing to undermine existing industry bargaining agreements and is therefore not willing to entertain any attempts by labour to renege on existing agreement[s] or to negotiate the terms of any such agreements,” it said.
All Gautrain construction workers received an across-the-board increase of 8% as from September 1 this year. The company said this was in line with the increase negotiated on a national level.
Bombela CJV said labour representatives and company officials were making every effort to ensure workers were aware of the possible consequences of their continued strike.
The consortium was unable to say how many strikers had embarked on industrial action on Tuesday and were continuing to do so on Wednesday afternoon. — Sapa