Hitting the trenches causes wage dispute
KILLARNEY – Tensions flared among striking casual workers on Newtown Avenue when a wage dispute between sub-contractors of Vumatel and supposed labour brokers arose on 10 November.
Vumatel is currently rolling out a project which will see fibre-optic cables laid underground throughout various suburbs, aimed at improving internet access in more homes across Joburg North.
The assertive, yet peaceful, strikers alleged that a verbal wage contract between them and the sub-contractors for R150 per worker per day paid fortnightly, had not been adhered to. This contract was brokered by senior staff, and work commenced in August.
The workers, who were employed to dig trenches for the fibre-optic cables, were threatening violence due to not being paid for three months of work and alleged that the sub-contractors were mismanaging funds.
The strike action continued the next day and it came to light that verbal agreements made between the sub-contractors, senior members of the casual labour group, and the casual labourers were miscommunicated.
Representatives of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were called in to mediate. These representatives eventually made a constructive effort to clarify and resolve all pertinent issues.
All stakeholders came to a solution agreed on by all, and work is set to resume, as long as both parties adhere to work and payment conditions stipulated through the mitigation process and all projects assigned to by Vumatel are completed to quality control standards.
Chief executive officer for Vumatel, Niel Schoeman, distanced the company from the wage dispute, saying it was an external labour concern.
“Vumatel is in the process of executing a major infrastructure project which results in a high number of jobs being created, as well as enabling small to medium enterprises to benefit,” stated Schoeman.
“We currently have more than 100 small to medium contractors working on our projects, who in turn employ approximately 1 800 to 2 000 labourers.”
Schoeman explained that, occasionally, some of the sub-contractors run into cash flow challenges due to the size and nature of the work.
“In this case, we became aware of a dispute arising with their labourers. We assisted [said sub-contractor] by paying them outside of our normal pay cycle to alleviate their cash flow pressures and to resolve the dispute. As far as we are aware the issue has been resolved and from this point onwards we have not had any further labour issues with regards to these sub-contractors.”
Details: www.vumatel.co.za
