ANA reports that the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) on Friday welcomed the decision of the Spar Guild Southern Africa to terminate the membership of the Giannacopoulos Group for various alleged infractions, including non-compliance with labour laws and the national minimum wage.  

The DEL said it had received a series of complaints in May about labour law violations at Spar stores across the country.  "On investigation, all the stores which happened to be violating the labour laws happened to be franchisees owned by Mr Giannacopoulos.”  Inspections were carried out at nine stores in Gauteng and one in the North West province.  Allegations included a failure by the employer to issue contracts to employers, long working hours with no overtime pay, no extra pay for work on Sundays and public holidays, illegal deductions from salaries, and failure to submit UIF declarations on a monthly basis.  An enforcement notice was issued to the Group, but the DEL said Giannacoupolous failed to rectify the situation.  Several Spar stores owned by the Group were closed on Friday, with Spar expected to start running the stores after obtaining a court order last week.  In a notice to retailers, Spar said it was terminating its membership of the Group as it was "competing with businesses of retail members and bringing the Spar into disrepute".

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Business Report

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