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City Press reports that workers placed by labour broker Adcorp at a factory in Springs first saw their pay double and benefits such as medical aid and a provident fund being provided for the first time, only days later to receive retrenchment letters.
This was the experience of workers at Kellogg’s Ekurhuleni plant following the watershed Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruling two weeks ago on the contentious “deeming” provision in the Labour Relations Act (LRA). At crisp maker Simba’s Isando facility, 142 out of 328 packers and boxmakers, who were also placed by Adcorp, face retrenchment after becoming permanent workers. The precedent at these two household name brands could be repeated at several workplaces where labour broker workers have been fighting to be “deemed” employees in terms of the LRA and so receive pay equal to that of their directly employed colleagues. Companies where cases like these are pending include Heineken, DHL, Bakers Biscuits, Clicks, Midas and online retailer Takealot. Kellogg’s Emmanuel Hinson said it was just an unfortunate coincidence that the retrenchments came just days after the workers succeeded in getting Kellogg’s to accept them as employees and raise their wages. The retrenchments were apparently due to a restructuring of the factory’s shift system that was in the works before the workers got ‘deemed’. Following the ConCourt ruling, thousands of workers could see their wages improve, but they also face severe employer reactions. One big deeming case that could be swayed by the ruling involves more than 500 labour broker workers at Clicks. City Press says it is aware of several other arbitration cases about deeming and equal pay pending at the CCMA, which have been waiting for the ConCourt judgment.
Read this report by Dewald Van Rensburg in full at Fin24
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