March to support Shoprite's casual staff

Image credit: Reuters/Salim Henry

Source: BDlive

The strike ended after Shoprite issued final warnings to most strikers, #OutsourcingMustFall spokesman Clarence Debeila said on Wednesday.

Staff downed tools on Monday last week over outsourcing and pay, maintaining that 90% of the 1,000 staff at the facility were employed by labour brokers and paid poverty wages.

Debeila said a memorandum of demands would be handed to management during the planned protest. This would drive home the "serious impact" that continued "victimisation" of the workforce would have.

Workers’ leader Inspector Malepe, who had confirmed on Tuesday that staff had returned to work, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Shoprite did not respond to requests for comment.

The Centurion facility is the largest distribution centre under one roof on the continent. It serves as the distribution point for about 90% of the products delivered to stores in Gauteng.

There have been several recent protests at Shoprite, with South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) deputy general secretary Mduduzi Mbongwe saying labour relations with management, especially at such off-site locations, were characteristically poor.

Casualisation has long posed problems for unions seeking to organise in the retail and hospitality sectors. Saccawu won a legal battle against Woolworths last month when the Labour Court ruled that 44 of the 92 employees retrenched during a process to move full-time employees to flexi-time employment should be reinstated.

Woolworths stopped employing full-time staff in stores in 2002 and by 2012 it had 16,400 flexi-time employees and 590 full-time staff. The company began converting the remaining full-time employees, with most accepting various options offered by the company.

Acting Judge Portia Nkutha-Nkontwana ruled Woolworths had failed to consult adequately with Saccawu — which is no longer a recognised union at the company — and failed to provide evidence that the retrenchments were operationally justifiable.

Woolworths said on Wednesday it was considering the judgment.

Mbongwe said the firm had until 19 April to appeal.

The retrenchments at Woolworths are part of a wave of job cuts in the retail sector starting in 2011. Mbongwe said Labour Relations Act amendments on labour broking had in large part been pre-empted by the companies, "although in cases where we are able to fight that we are fighting it".