Employees call for removal of manager

About 50 employees of a filling station in the Mankweng area downed tools last Friday in protest against alleged maladministration and non-compliance with labour related issues by the management of the business.
The employees accused the management of not conforming to the constitutional principles and statute of the labour law.
According to the employees the management do not contribute towards a provident fund for employees and some employees have not been registered with the Department of Labour. “They are deducting provident fund money from our salaries but we are not registered with the Department of Labour. The question is where the money is going because we have checked at the Motor Industry Bargaining Council and found that we were not registered. They don’t submit the deducted amounts to the Motor Industry Bargaining Council and we are worried,” the employees said.
The protesters called for the removal of the manager of the station claiming that he discriminated against black employees and had a tendency of dividing employees through his actions. “The manager does not share a toilet with the workers. He makes use of the toilet for disabled persons and that toilet door is always kept locked,” they stated.

The protesters were joined by members of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) who also expressed concern about the alleged attitude of the manager. “As the EFF we have tried on several occasions to bring the workers’ grievances to the management’s attention but we are met with arrogance and disrespect from the racist manager who thinks we are still living in the apartheid era where black people have no rights to engage whenever they feel the management is not being fair on their side,” EFF Deputy Chairperson for Ward 27 in Paledi, Thabo Modishe said.
The party further accused the manager of being characterised by a culture of arrogance, lack of transparency and the unwillingness to face the reality of the workers issues.
“This culture not only flies in the face of the business’s employment policy, but also contravenes the workers employment acts and constitutional rights as South Africans. What they are doing is completely unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue.”
“We have lost trust in all white racist managers brought to the store with hidden agendas to continue mistreating poor black workers and so we want the current manager to resign with immediate effect and a black manager must be brought in who can understand more on issues of the workers,” remarked Modishe.
Emile Foure, manager of the fuel station on Friday said they had noted all the concerns of the workers and would attend to them soonest.
All efforts made to contact Fourie yesterday (Wednesday) proved futile at the time of going to press.

Story: Herbert Rachuene
>>herbert.observer@gmail.com