BusinessLive reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) is threatening to strike at Bell Equipment’s Richards Bay plant and at its Boksburg-based head office to demand insourcing of workers, a housing and transport allowance and R2,000 in untaxed bonuses for member employees.
Bell employs more than 3,500 people and owns a principal manufacturing plant in Richards Bay, where the union plans to picket, alongside 20 branches located nationwide. Numsa’s Irvin Jim bemoaned the exclusion of workers from sharing in the company’s profits. Management and white-collar workers had received bonus payouts while “not a cent was given to so-called ‘blue-collar’ workers”, he claimed. The union and Bell have deadlocked and have been engaging in conciliation through the CCMA, the last day of which was 4 July. Numsa is demanding a housing allowance of R2,000 for members and a transport allowance of R1,000. The union says it also wants all workers to benefit from the company’s profit share scheme and proposed the company offer a R2,000 untaxed payment to each worker as a bonus. Additionally, the union wants labour brokers scrapped and the workers to be insourced by Bell, some of whom it noted have been temporary employees for 10 years or more. “If they refuse to put a better offer at that meeting, then we will request picketing rules, as well as the strike certificate from the commissioner so that we can mobilise for a total shutdown of Bell equipment. We urge the management to come to the negotiating table with an offer to prevent a strike,” said Jim.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Michelle Gumede at BusinessLive
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