South Africa’s NUMSA Threatens City of Tshwane with Full Blown Strike

The members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) in the Hlanganani region marched to the City of Tshwane’s offices, demanding that the city intervene to ensure that workers receive transportation allowance.

According to a statement signed by NUMSA National Spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola workers are refusing to go to work because supervisors from agencies hired by Areyeng to run the City of Tshwane’s BRT service have refuse to provide them with enough transportation or transportation allowance.

Employers at Tshwane Rapid Transit, Tshwane Affected Investment Operation (TAIO), and Xtremetec Management Consulting are not following the Basic Conditions of Employment Act to the letter.

The act explicitly states that if workers are working awkward hours the employer has a duty to provide safe reliable transportation.

The workers spokesperson adds that their members are expected to start work at 4am and knock off after 9pm. There is no safe reliable transport at that time and our members risk their lives trying to get to and from work. At the same time, they spend a fortune of their meagre wages on alternative transportation.

Workers representative acknowledges Tshwane Rapid Transit effort in offering workers transport allowance but it is not enough. Since 2014, they have been getting R1100 allowance and it has not been increased. Our members are demanding that it be increased to R2500 because they cannot afford to pay for transport themselves

 But the Tshwane Affected investment Operation (TAIO) is not assisting with transport or transport allowance at all. When we try to engage management on this, they claim the City of Tshwane is not giving them enough money to pay for transport allowance. Our members at Xtremetec are currently on strike to demand transport allowance. Currently workers receive R600 transport allowance but this is not nearly enough to cover the cost of transportation. They are demanding R2500 per month transport allowance and Night Shift allowance of R60 per hour.

NUMSA says it will be waiting with keen interest for a response from the City to their demands. If they fail to respond adequately to our demands, our members from TRT and TAIO have instructed us to serve the city with a 48-hour notice for a secondary strike to join workers at Xtremetec. This strike will also include Fullserve Security workers. The strike will be a total shut down of all Areyeng BRT services! Our demands are not unreasonable; they are supported by the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. The City must just comply and this includes the agencies as well.