This news aggregator site highlights South African labour news from a wide range of internet and print sources. Each posting has a synopsis of the source article, together with a link or reference to the original. Postings cover the range of labour related matters from industrial relations to generalist human resources.
GroundUp reports that over a hundred domestic workers dressed in bright uniforms and carrying irons and mops marched through the streets of Pretoria on Thursday to mark International Domestic Workers Day.
They marched to the Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) with a memorandum of demands, but no officials were there to receive the memo. The protesters included local and migrant female domestic workers and some male gardeners who worked in suburbs across Gauteng. The march was supported by the United Domestic Workers of SA (UDWOSA), the SA Domestic Workers Union (SADSAWU), Zimbabwe Isolated Women of SA (ZIWISA) and Izwi Domestic Workers Alliance. The workers said they wanted decent working and living conditions for those who lived on their employer’s premises. They were also demanding to be registered with the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and for Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases (COIDA) regardless of citizenship and other employment benefits. Workers complained of being manhandled, mauled by employers’ dogs, racism, xenophobia and sexual harassment at work. Ethel Musonza from ZIWISA said the termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) meant many domestic workers were facing an uncertain future and the DEL “must intervene.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Kimberly Mutandiro at GroundUp
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page