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IOL News reports that following a seven-year legal battle by six fired workers previously employed by labour brokers at brewing company Heineken’s Sedibeng plant, they last week finally received compensation when their case was settled.
The six members of the Simunye Workers Forum (SWF) reached a settlement in their long-running unfair dismissal dispute with Liquor Runner and Heineken. They were fired in 2018 after they were accused of partaking in an unprotected strike. Their problems started in 2018, when more than 400 workers employed by labour brokers at Heineken were attending their section 198 case at the CCMA. During the hearing, Heineken told the commissioner that it did not know who the workers were. In response, the workers, who had worked at Heineken’s Sedibeng Brewery for years, took two taxis on 22 October 2018 to Heineken’s head office in Sandton to introduce themselves. They held a peaceful protest outside Heineken’s premises after management refused to meet with them. Shortly afterwards, Imperial, the labour broker at the time, dismissed the worker leaders involved in the protest. Up until recently, Heineken and the labour brokers have been fighting the claims against them. Liquor Runner, which took over from Imperial, initially told the bargaining council that the workers had been on an unprotected strike. The result was that the matter was referred to the Labour Court, where it remained stalled for years. Just as the trial was set to begin last week, Liquor Runner reversed its position by conceding that there had in fact been no unprotected strike. A financial settlement was made an order of court on Friday.
- Read the full original of the interesting report in the above regard by Zelda Venter at IOL News
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