Currently no collection of parking fees are being undertaken in Braamfontein and the CBD, and the attendants have been urging motorists not to pay for parking during the strike.
Typically, the cash tariffs are R4.50 for 30 minutes, R9 for an hour and R4.50 per 30 minutes thereafter.
Despite earlier reports that the city council would receive 20-40 percent of the income generated from kerbside parking payments, the city council would not comment on how much money was being lost during the strike.
ACE Parking Services manages more than 7 000 municipal parking bays and employs the parking attendants that man these spaces, as part of the city council’s scheme to ensure compliance with parking laws.
The attendants, members of the Kungwini Amalgamated Workers Union, who currently earn on a commission basis, downed tools two weeks ago demanding a basic salary of R5 000 per month and a 30 percent commission on monies made per month.
Other demands included that workers receive an annual bonus equivalent to their basic salary with effect from December 2014, and that all money which was unlawfully deducted by the company from the attendants’ commission since January to recoup lost income, must be reimbursed.
Further, the union demanded the registration of all employees to a provident fund, the reinstatement of all suspended and dismissed employees with immediate effect, and the issuing of contracts of employment in line with the requirements of the basic conditions of employment.
The attendants also accused ACE of exploitation and called on the city council, with which the company has a tender to manage municipal paid parking, to intervene.
However, the city council has remained tight-lipped on the dispute between the attendants and the company and the recent strike action.
“ACE is responsible for all actions of its employees [including marshals] and continues to be responsible for its own obligations as employer of its employees,” the city council’s spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane.
The city council did not indicate whether it would intervene, nor would it respond to the attendants demands to be managed by the city council rather than ACE Parking Services.
