Cape Times reports that Working on Fire’s (WoF’s) Trevor Abrahams has refuted claims of exploitation of workers, telling MPs that the 300 firefighters the organisation sent to Canada in June were essentially there as volunteers.  

They were brought back home and threatened with disciplinary action after they went on strike, charging that WoF, which is contracted to the Department of Environmental Affairs, short-changed them on pay.  They had been demanding to be paid the Canadian minimum wage of R3,000 a day.  Abrahams told the parliamentary portfolio committee on environmental affairs that disaster relief for which the South Africans were deployed should not be seen as an employment opportunity.  “In the last deployment to Canada the Working on Fire allowance was about CAN$50 (R533), over and above their (South African) salaries,” said Abrahams.  Also, all the board and lodging had been paid for by WoF.  “If you compare their allowance in terms of purchasing power they earned more than their Canadian counterparts,” Abrahams added.

• Read this report by Quinton Mtyala in full at Cape Times
• See too, Call for detailed report on firefighters’ experience, on page 2 of The New Age of 19 October 2016

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