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Business Times reports that labour federation Cosatu demanded last week that Massmart must reinstate about 400 Makro employees that the company said were dismissed for unlawful conduct during a strike by the SA Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu).
According to Massmart, their dismissals followed a fair disciplinary procedure after certain employees participated in unlawful picketing action late last year. But Cosatu and Saccawu last week accused Makro of underhanded tactics aimed at undermining collective bargaining. In a letter, they demanded the unconditional reinstatement of all dismissed workers and that negotiations be reopened to discuss demands submitted by Saccawu. The letter claimed that Makro was attempting to liquidate Saccawu by offering incentives to workers if they terminated their membership. But, Massmart’s Brian Leroni said on Thursday that Cosatu’s allegation that the company was incentivising employees to leave the union was “uninformed and untrue” as more than 1,000 Makro staff left the union by personal choice to accept the company’s wage offer. Saccawu held a strike at Makro in January after the company did not meet the union's demands for a R900 a month or 12% wage increase, whichever was greater, a minimum wage of R8,000 a month and a 13th cheque. The strike is ongoing. The company advised in January it had implemented a 4.5% wage increase late last year. Cosatu said last week that Massmart’s conduct left it with no option but to mobilise members at Makro and other sectors to embark on "solidarity mobilisation" against “the violation of workers’ rights and against the repressive attitude to trade unionism”.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Khulekani Magubane at Business Times (subscriber access only)
Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page