Makro, Game and Dion workers are staging marches in several cities on Friday to protest against working conditions.
”There will be a march from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown [Johannesburg] to the Game store where a memorandum of demands will be handed over,” said South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) spokesperson Mike Abrahams.
Similar marches by Massmart workers would take place in Cape Town, Durban and Bloemfontein on Friday.
Saccawu’s list of demands included a R460 per month or 8,5% salary increase (whichever is the highest) for Makro workers, overtime payment on Sundays and an end to a seven-day rolling working week.
Other demands included increasing the staff discount to 15%, a 30% housing subsidy and a 100% 13th cheque for all workers.
The union also wanted all part-time workers to become full-time after three years.
Some of the disputes had been referred to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
”We must also warn that union members are more than ready to embark upon indefinite strikes should the company fail to meet union demands after the protest action,” said Abrahams.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) had expressed support for the protest action.
”The union’s demands are eminently reasonable, given the very low wages and poor working conditions in the retail sector,” Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said in an earlier statement.
”They also have to be seen in the context of an industry in which top executives’ salaries are obscenely high, especially when compared to the meagre take-home pay of their workers.” — Sapa