Negotiations have stalled between retail giant Woolworths and the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) due to conflicting views on the duration of verifying the number of workers belonging to the union.
“The issue of a joint verification exercise led by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration has been agreed upon but we disagree on the period for the verification,” said Saccawu spokesperson Thabo Mahlangu on Thursday.
Woolworths wants the verification process to run over 30 days, while Saccawu believes five days would be enough.
Woolworths and Saccawu have been in a dispute since September 17. The company claims the union does not have enough members to be recognised and has therefore requested proof. Currently less than 6% of Woolworths staff are participating in the picketing, it said.
“The strike is about organisational rights and not the conditions of employment. Woolworths’s employees are free to join any union of their choice. Woolworths will grant the union appropriate recognition if they demonstrate they are sufficiently representative. The vast majority of our employees (more than 85%), however, have not joined the union,” Woolworths told the Mail & Guardian Online earlier in the week.
“Woolworths hasn’t shown genuine commitment. We want them to stick to a timeline and we will suspend the strike. We can’t suspend the strike if the verification has an indefinite timeline which could lead to them [Woolworths] abandoning the process halfway through like they did in 2005,” said Mahlangu on Thursday.
However, Woolworths said it continues to negotiate in good faith in an effort to resolve the dispute, adding that the union raised additional issues at a time when it thought an agreement would be reached.
“Delays in negotiations were as a result of new issues raised by the union, issues related to their five-day verification period versus 30 days we proposed,” said spokesperson Zyda Rylands.
She said the retailer previously concluded the verification process in 21 days but now that the union had indicated that its numbers had grown, it required at least 30 days.
“This is an admin-intensive manual process. If their numbers increased, then we anticipate that it would take longer. It is not practical to complete in five days,” she said.
Saccawu also wants Woolworths to conclude what its organisational rights will be once it shows sufficient representativeness.
However, Rylands said that as per relations stipulation, the retailer will only agree on the content and details of the union’s organisational rights after it has shown sufficient representation.
“Woolworths continues to follow standard labour relations practice while actively seeking reasonable alternatives to end this dispute. We are waiting for them to confirm our next meeting,” she said.
She said Woolworths is available to meet on an urgent basis and believes that an agreement is imminent.
The effect of the strike has been minimal, Woolworths told the M&G Online.
“All stores have remained open. Comprehensive contingency plans are currently in place to ensure our customers are not inconvenienced by the strike,” it said.
There have been isolated incidences of picketers not obeying picketing rules, including intimidation of store employees, leading to the retailer recently obtaining an interdict to ensure that Saccawu complies with the rules.
On conditions of employment, Woolworths said: “Woolworths does not employ casuals. All employees are permanent with benefits. In addition to benefits, Woolworths offers generous discounts on clothes and food.
“Thirteen thousand of our people are beneficiaries of our BEE [black economic empowerment] share scheme. We paid beneficiaries R13,6-million in the last year. The majority of our employees received double-digit increases this year. Woolworths’s employment proposition is good and highly competitive.”