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Pretoria News reports that four hundred Transpharm workers have marched to the National Department of Health to demand it should intervene in deadlocked wage negotiations.
Workers at Transpharm, one of SA’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers and distributors and a subsidiary of Shoprite Holdings, are currently engaged in a strike, which has entered its second week, for a minimum wage of R12,500. The company says it can only give them an increase of 8%. General Industries and Workers Union of SA (Giwusa) president Mametlwe Sebei said that in Wednesday’s meeting with Transpharm management no agreement could be reached. He commented further: "Transpharm, in response, has opened its books for the workers to see that it is incapable of meeting their demands and still remain profitable. Moreover, Transpharm places the blame squarely on the shoulders of the government for regulating the prices of medication. All this while Shoprite, the company to which Transpharm belongs, pays its chief executive 34 million per annum and its workers, a mere R4 500." He said the march to the department was to demand that: "If the company can't meet the just demands of the workers, then it must be nationalized and incorporated into the public health system."
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Liam Ngobeni at Pretoria News
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