SA Steel Mills (SASM) has said it would institute contempt of court proceedings against the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa), its members and its regional secretary, “given their flagrant disregard for the interim court order (and now the final order)”.
The now two-week strike at SASM has become a battle of wills as Numsa found that the Labour Court ruling exonerated its demands to strike indefinitely.
The current strike is for the reinstatement of 165 workers who were dismissed in April for striking for an upgrade of the industry entry-level rate of R59.10 an hour against SASM’s current R43.00 per hour, among other grievances.
Judge Maitu Phehane on Friday expunged a portion of an interim order granted a week before during the second day of picketing.
The interim order had said that the strike was not in compliance with the Labour Relations Act’s proclamation on picketing rules, and therefore was unprotected.
“It is ordered that paragraph of the rule nisi issued on 23 May is discharged, the remaining paragraphs of the rule nisi are confirmed,” Phehane said in the ruling.
“The applicant (SASM) is to pay the costs of this application, which costs include the costs of counsel where so employed.”
Numsa’s spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, said Friday’s order corrected the earlier one that had indicated an interdict, which had been served on the union.
“The court has discharged or deleted or expunged the request by SASM for interim interdict,” Hlubi-Majola said.
“They had abandoned the request of the interim court order, discharging it means there is an existent court order. They must pay costs, we won this application. There was no interdict. The strike is lawful and protected.”
Hlubi-Majola said the strike has completely shut down production at SA Steel Mills since May 22.
“It is at a complete standstill. We want to correct the false narrative peddled by the bosses in the media, that the strike has been interdicted, that is not true,” she said.
“The company tried to apply for another interim interdict this week, and they abandoned their application at the Labour Court, and asked for the court to delete the request from their application.
“We have the court transcript as proof of this. Unfortunately, the judge issued an erroneous court order reflecting that an interim interdict had been granted, when it had not been granted.”
Stein Scop Attorneys’ Amelia Berman, representing SASM, said over the weekend that despite the service of the order on Friday, Numsa’s members continued to act unlawfully.
“Not even an hour after the order was granted, Mr Thabiso Lempe, Numsa’s regional officer who was in court for the hearing, was photographed at SASM’s premises with the strikers acting in breach of the order,” Berman said.
“Video surveillance was taken of one of the strikers kicking and hitting a vehicle attempting to enter SASM’s premises.”
Berman said Numsa’s actions since the strike began had been tainted with “reprehensible acts of perpetual violence, sexual assault, intimidation of employees, suppliers and other third parties”, as well as damage to property.
However, Hlubi-Majola said the assault allegations had been unproven.
“The other thing, we went to the police on the allegations, allegation that Numsa assaulted a woman. The police said there is no case of a woman assaulted,” Hlubi-Majola said.
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