The lives of hundreds of thousands of passengers could be disrupted by a strike action due to a dispute between Bombela, the company that operates Gauteng’s viral Gautrain rail link, and the United National Transport Union (UNTU) is not amicably resolved on 11 July 2016 at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).
Mr. Steve Harris, General Secretary of UNTU, says the UNION does not want to be the cause of mayhem for passengers and apologises for any inconvenience they may occur. “UNTU however has no option but to advise our members to take strike action if Bombela continues to be evasive with the truth.”
UNTU declared disputes on behalf of its members about the company’s arbitrary reversal of a policy on the payment of operational staff and the deadlock in the 2016/2017 salary negotiations.
According to Bombela’s policy rules employees were paid overtime rates when they worked six days in a week instead of five. The company arbitrarily stopped paying overtime rates in 2013. Since then the company has done its uttermost to frustrate UNTU attempts to challenge its actions.
“Bombela is deliberately dragging its feet. The illegal decision has landed the company with a salary backlog in excess of R20 million. The employees will have no choice but to go on strike in protest if Bombela continue to attempt to evade that debt,” said Mr. Harris.
Bombela is seeking to short-change its hard working and hyper efficient employees when they offered a 3% pay increase during the 2016/2017 salary negotiations. UNTU demanded am 15% pay increase due to amongst other employees struggle to cope with the current financial crisis in the country after the recent worst drought in more than 100 years. The gap has narrowed to a 9% vs 7% divide when negotiations deadlocked causing UNTU to declare a dispute.
According to Mr. Harris Bombela must pay its employees the money they have earned. “If the company continues to refuse it is flirting with the economic security of the country and its thousands of passengers. It is alleged that Bombela has landed itself in this mess because its senior executives are foreigners who does not understand South African labour laws. It that is the case, it must become the company’s problem and not that of its employees.”
For further enquiries please phone Mr. Harris on (011) 728 0120 or 082 566 5516.
1Issued on behalf of UNTU by Sonja Carstens, Media and Liaison Officer. For UNTU Press Releases e-mail sonja@untu.co.za or phone 082 a463 6806.
MED.062 Bombela
