Cape Town - Labour federation Cosatu says it will investigate allegations that 33 Intercape bus company drivers were dismissed for joining a union.
The axed employees had reportedly joined the National Union for All Sectors (Nufas) in May, before attending disciplinary hearings on July 8.
Union representative, Jean Baker, said workers reported that since joining the union, the company “sabotaged” them.
“The workers had to sit in a room for eight hours without water and food just because they refused to hand in their own cellphones and sign an attendance register.
“They know how they abuse the employees and they didn’t want them to record all of this.
“This has never happened before joining the union.
“Two guys joined the union and they were called into a meeting and they left their cellphones and signed the register, once they were told by management that they should leave the union or ‘we are going to dismiss you, there’s the door’.
“Unfortunately there is no proof but they were advised to go to the police station to sign an affidavit,” said Baker.
An insider told the Cape Argus that the drivers had been tired of the ill-treatment they received from the company.
“They said they drive long distances and they don’t rest. Imagine driving 18 hours and when you reach the destination you don’t sleep but get more passengers and then drive back for another 18 hours. It’s torture and people got tired of that.
“One driver lost his life when he was involved in a crash; he had been driving for days without proper sleep. These are the atrocities that the drivers wanted to protect themselves from but they were dismissed.”
Intercape, however, denied that the employees were fired because they joined the union. In response to queries from the Cape Argus, the company said the workers had a fundamental right to freedom of association and this principle is protected within the Constitution.
“When the company became aware that workers joined a trade union, it contracted the services of Professor Brian Williams, who is a strong advocate for the rights of workers. His peace and human rights public record is well known. We appointed Prof Williams to guide the company through the stages of recognising the trade union,” Intercape said.
Intercape further commented that allegations that 33 workers were dismissed because they joined a trade union is defamatory and completely false.
“The facts are that the company convened meetings of all its staff members on a continuous basis. These workers who belong to a trade union, were instructed by the trade union not to follow basic instructions by the company from, as trivial as to sign an attendance register, to a walkout where management wanted to discuss operational issues. The union, extraordinarily, confirmed in writing that they instructed their members not to cooperate with the company.
“The company issued warnings to those workers to indicate the seriousness of refusing to carry out reasonable and lawful instructions. Notwithstanding this, staff members continued to refuse to obey lawful instructions on the instructions of their trade union. Our lawyers (Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs) advised that we are within our rights to follow disciplinary processes leading to their dismissals. There are a number of union members who followed the instructions of the company and are still employed. This defies the allegation from the workers that they were dismissed because they joined a union.”
Baker said that she had advised the employees to not attend meetings.
“We are going to get justice, we will leave no stone unturned. The case is before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and we are looking at other avenues,” Baker said.
Cosatu provincial secretary Malvern De Bruyn said they will approach the company to establish what transpired. “Workers can’t be victimised or intimidated for joining a union. Cosatu will discuss this matter with Intercape to find out what happened and allow them to respond and based on their response we will know what our next step will be.”
Cape Argus