Mail & Guardian reports that police were called the week before last to remove Pick n Pay workers accused of striking at the retailer’s distribution centre in Philippi in Cape Town.
The workers were summarily dismissed, despite their insistence that they never went on strike. While the workers claimed this action affected 70 people; according to the retailer it was “a small group”. The workers say that late on 10 April, they were told they had been dismissed for striking during the lockdown. The police were called to remove them from the premises and photographs and video footage taken by the workers show the police inside the distribution centre on the night in question. During the lockdown, essential workers have a limited right to strike. But the workers claim they were not striking and were simply attending a meeting called by Pick n Pay labour brokers about an incentive agreement extended to them for continuing to work during the lockdown. The workers concerned had apparently refused to sign the agreement, in which management had offered to pay them a bonus of R500 at the end of April and another R500 at the end of May. At the meeting, notices from the two labour-broking companies were handed to the workers indicating that the distribution of food had been declared as an essential service, so it was unlawful for any workers at the distribution centre to engage in any form of strike. “You have been told to get back to work, but you are refusing to do so. This is your last warning,” the notices warned. The workers said the warning — and the subsequent arrival of the police — came as a surprise to them. According to one of the workers, they refused to sign the letter that said they had been striking. “After two hours they came back with dismissal letters. And they call law enforcement to take us out of the premises.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sarah Smit at Mail & Guardian
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