Retail giant Woolworths said on Friday it was concerned about intimidation of those workers not taking part in the ongoing strike by the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu).
”We are concerned at the level of intimidation. Many of our employees say they want to come back to work but are scared,” Woolworths chief operating officer Zyda Rylands said.
According to police, hundreds of protesting Woolworths employees stormed through an outlet in the Johannesburg CBD on Thursday, intimidating employees and assaulting a truck driver.
Rylands said the store had to be closed to protect customers and workers, but was later open for trade.
There was minimal damage to property. Saccawu was handed a court interdict instructing it to abide by picketing rules, and was instructed to draft a letter to its members to abide by picketing rules and stop intimidating staff. The letter has to be drafted and distributed by Monday.
Rylands said the company would investigate the incident and take steps to deal with the perpetrators.
Meanwhile, the union denied that its members were involved in any violent act.
”We believe the general public who arrived to show support for the employees may have been responsible for the incident. Most employees were at the meeting at City Hall at the time,” Saccawu’s Thabo Mahlangu said.
However, steps would be taken if it was discovered union members were involved.
Woolworths workers continued picketing at different posts and there were no violent incidences reported by Friday afternoon.
Woolworths and Saccawu have been in a dispute for weeks over the union’s right to represent workers at the retailer.
The company has claimed that only 15% of its workers are Saccawu members, which it says is not enough.
Mahlangu said the union had submitted a counter-proposal to Woolworths over the verification of the number of workers belonging to the union.
One of the issues that the union viewed as a stumbling block was that Woolworths wanted to involve an external auditor in the verification process.
”We agree to management’s verification conditions, but disagree with only one issue, that an external auditor will be brought in to interrogate our members,” Mahlangu said.
Rylands said Woolworths only wanted the process to be ”free, fair, open and transparent”.
”I don’t know why the strike is even continuing. We’ve consistently said they must show us the documents and verify the number which they claim to have. The onus is on them now,” she said. — Sapa