Pikitup workers want overtime payment and transport
JOBURG – Pikitup confirmed workers strike is disrupting refuse collection services in Joburg.
City of Joburg’s waste management entity, Pikitup, has advised residents to stop taking their bins outside their yards for refuse collection.
This follows the illegal strike that allegedly started on 23 November by the entity’s employees affiliated to South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU).
Pikitup spokesperson Jacky Mashapu explained that they would notify the residents as to when the refuse would be collected.
He said the strike had disrupted all the entity’s depots, meaning that all the residents in the Joburg area were affected. “We are not sure what they are striking for. Management wants to address their issues but we do not know those issues at this stage,” he said.
Samwu deputy general secretary Simon Mathe said the Pikitup management did not want to meet with the workers and that prompted them to down tools on 23 November.
“It is not necessarily a strike. It is a demonstration to show that we need our grievances to be attended to,” said Mathe.
He concluded that workers wanted the management to pay them for working overtime.
“Workers also need the management to provide transport when they have to attend funerals of their colleagues. They are currently not doing that and when workers need to attend their colleagues’ funerals they use their own transport,” he concluded.
Details: Samwu 084 368 9324; Pikitup 011 712 5361.
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