BREAKING NEWS: Interdict placed on bank strike
The labour court has placed an interdict on the planned banking strike that was scheduled for Friday September 27.
This judgment, by judge Hilary Rabkin-Naicker, was handed down on Thursday following an urgent application by Business Unity South Africa (Busa) to stop the planned strike.
Finance union Sasbo and trade union Cosatu, threatened a total shutdown in the banking sector. Rabkin-Naicker said she would supply reasons for her judgement at a later stage.
She ruled that the planned banking sector would be unprotected.
Busa’s lawyers said the protest would not help to address the realities affecting the banking industry and “will further burden the economy and deter investment”.
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The two unions wanted to protest about retrenchments in the banking sector and planned five marched throughout the country in Johannesburg, Durban, Port Elizabeth, Cape Town and Bloemfontein. Approximately 50 000 workers were expected to down tools.
A second wave of protests are apparently planned for October 7. Sasbo general secretary, Joe Kokela claimed that Standard Bank planned to retrench 6 000 employees, Nedbank 3 000 employees and Absa 878.
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He claimed that banks were unilaterally laying off employees instead of upskilling them so that they could remain relevant in the fourth industrial revolution.
Both Nedbank and Standard Bank denied that claim, however.
