Axed Putco employees vow not to back down
The dismissal follows a court order obtained by the company restraining the striking workers from protesting at its depot premises.
The 105 workers who have been axed by bus operator, Putco have expressed their discontentment as contention between the company and some of its workers reached new heights over the illegal strike.
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The dismissal follows a court order obtained by the company restraining the striking workers from protesting at its depot premises and among others, preventing passengers from embarking or disembarking from any of the company buses.
Workers downed tools on September 1 demanding a 6% wage increase and annual bonuses from 2020 which they said the bus company had failed to pay out.
Bus driver, Bonginkosi Msomi who is among the axed workers said they would not be backing down despite news of their dismissal.
“We received SMS stating our contracts were terminated because of our participation in the strike but we are shocked how this 105 was selected, on what basis when many workers have not returned to work.
“We were not hired via SMS and we won’t regard it until we receive letters of termination,” he said.
Another axed driver, Phumlani Ndlovu said, “For us to get to this point and lose our jobs is really out of frustration and realising just how useless we are to the company.
“We are working but have nothing to show for it, many of us are living in debt,” he said.
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Ndlovu told the publication he did not regret his decision not to appeal to keep his job as he was tired of poor treatment citing challenges pertaining to staff bus and reduced overtime among other issues.
“There was no point in appealing. This is what it had to boil down to. I think life will be better after this,” he said.
“In these ten years, instead of going forward, I am stuck. It is the manner in which we have been subjected whilst working here. Everything in the company is masked with a threat behind it.”
Msomi who has worked for the bus service for 15 years said workers would continue with the strike adding that they would not move from the premises until they were given what belongs to them.
“We were hoping that something will change instead they have dragged the matter, all the while losing appeals. We have children who are hungry and not attending school. We don’t have any means because we are not being paid,” he continued.
Putco Spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu, said it was all hands on deck to resume normal bus operations this week.
“We can confirm that we have finalised our disciplinary processes.
“We did give the opportunity to the striking workers to make representations of why they should not be dismissed and over 400 individual submissions of the 1000 workers who were on strike were received.
“A further 500 came from unions representing their workers,” he explained, adding that the 105 number is prone to change should workers not report for duty.
Xulu added that those who were not dismissed were on final warning, citing that failure to comply with stipulated conditions would result in more dismissals going forth.
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The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said it would be appealing the dismissal.
Numsa General Secretary, Irvin Jim met with senior management of the company last week to resolve the matter however the meeting collapsed as both parties could not reach common ground.
The union which is said to be representing 1400 employees at Putco have since called on the Transport ministry to intervene and stop subsidizing the bus company until it pays the increase.
“We call on Transport Minister Fikile Mbalula to intervene in the current impasse.
“The department, in our view cannot continue to pay and subsidise a bus company that is anti-worker, union bashing and selfish.
“Clearly its management is only prepared to pocket every rand of the cash flow and share nothing with workers,” said Jim.
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