Union vows to continue protesting outside GP hospitals against outsourcing

The South African Cleaners, Security and Allied Workers’ Union has vowed to continue its industrial protest at Gauteng hospitals calling for the government to stop outsourcing to private security and cleaning companies.

This comes after at least 50 of Edenvale Hospital’s security and cleaning staff have been camping outside the hospital for 35 days in the hope that the hospital would consider insourcing them so they could ultimately return to work, or getting their alleged outstanding salaries for September, October and November 2021.

The employees, initially hired by a private security company, Jackcliffy Trading, demanded that the hospital intervene and insource them. They claim they were unfairly dismissed in December.

According to some of the security guards, they were not fired, but surprised one morning in December when a new company had replaced them at the hospital.

ALSO READ: Edenvale hospital horror: Not a place you’d want to be admitted

The union’s national organiser Andries Potsane said its members were sick and tired of being exploited by private security companies and they now wanted to work directly for the Gauteng government.

“We are asking the government or the department of health not to renew those [other] service providers’ contracts and insource security officers,” he said.

“Our members are not being paid on time, they don’t have UIF, or provident funds and are not even paid according to the Private Security Industry Regulation Authority. They do not get bonuses at the end of the year.”

However, Jackcliffy Trading’s operations manager Simon Mudau said the people camping outside the hospital were no longer employed by them, had been fully paid and were aware that the service provider’s contract had been terminated.

When asked about an arbitration award by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA), Mudau denied any knowledge of such a hearing.

Nonetheless according to a CCMA award, Jackcliffy Trading failed to remunerate the group for September to November and had been ordered by the CCMA to do so.