BL Premium reports that labour has called on the government to intervene after unions claimed that SA Breweries (SAB) has begun engaging with them on a possible ‘section 189’ retrenchment process.
The company is fighting the outright liquor ban President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed for a third time in December, arguing in court that such a prohibition infringed on the constitutional right to trade freely. The ban was instituted amid a second wave of Covid-19 infections, but has raised fears that booze companies, unable to trade, will look to retrench workers to mitigate their losses. Mayoyo Mngomezulu of the Food & Allied Workers Union (Fawu) noted that any retrenchments would be in addition to other cost-saving measures taken by companies such as SAB, which implemented an 18-month 10% across-the-board salary cut in July last year due to the first alcohol ban. Mike Sikani of the SA Commercial, Catering & Allied Workers’ Union (Saccawu) said the union wrote to Ramaphosa and also trade & industry minister Ebrahim Patel last year offering alternatives to the alcohol ban, but has not had a response. It proposed reinstating alcohol sales on certain days only, ensuring that a strict curfew remained in place and having better law enforcement. Mngomezulu pointed out that workers and their families were bearing the burden of the ban. "There are 165,000 jobs on the line in a country with more than 40% unemployment. I am afraid the president got it wrong this time in how he is balancing livelihoods and lives," he observed.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Natasha Marrian at BusinessLive (paywall access only)
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