eThekwini Municipality issues over 100 striking DSW workers dismissal ultimatum
|Published
More than 100 striking workers in the Durban Solid Waste (DSW) unit in the eThekwini Municipality will be fired today if they do not return to work. DSW workers in Durban Springfield downed tools on Tuesday protesting about lowered working hours. File Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/African News Agency(ANA)
DURBAN - MORE than 100 striking workers in the Durban Solid Waste (DSW) unit in the eThekwini Municipality will be fired today if they do not return to work.
That was the warning from the head of the DSW unit, Raymond Rampersad. He said if the municipality went ahead and fired the workers because they had embarked on an illegal strike, it would be the first time that the city had taken such action. He added that if the workers returned to work, they would still have to face disciplinary processes.
He said there are more than 100 workers who were taking part in the strike. The workers are based in the Newlands, Phoenix and Springfield depots.
The strike had been going on since Monday and the municipality has issued two warnings for the workers to return to work.
In a statement on Wednesday, the city said that DSW had been unable to service some parts of the city due to the ongoing illegal strike.
The areas affected included Greyville, Morningside, Umgeni, Springfield, Clare Estate, Overport, Sydenham, Phoenix Industrial Park area and Phoenix Plaza CBD.
One of the labour unions said it had urged the workers to return to work.
The challenges that led to the strike date back to 2019. The workers had lodged a complaint against one of their managers. The matter was resolved last week, but did not favour the workers, which triggered the strike.
Rampersad said that one of the managers had queried the overtime claims which the workers had submitted.
“The workers complained about that and we put the manager on leave while an independent person investigated the allegations that had been made.
“The independent person decided that there was no wrongdoing on the part of the manager and he returned to work. The workers are upset about that, but we cannot fire someone who is doing their work honestly,” he said.
Rampersad said since the start of the strike, service to the affected areas had halted.
“We have been fielding hundreds of complaints from the community and the businesses operating in those areas.”
He said the municipality had tried to put in a contingency plan to ensure that service to these areas continued but that was scuppered by acts of violence.
“On Wednesday we had a contingency plan to send workers to these areas, and these workers were attacked.”
Queen Mbatha of the Independent Municipal & Allied Trade Union said they were aware of the warning by the municipality for the workers to return to work or face the consequences.
She said the workers had not heeded that call.
“We are not leading this strike, we have engaged with the staff members to say they must let us deal with the issue with management while they return to work, and we have asked the municipal human resources team to engage with the workers on the repercussions of not returning to work,” she said.
“We must also state that it has been very difficult for us as the union to get a meeting with the city managers, we have been trying and we were told they are in meetings,” she said.
Attempts to speak to the SA Municipal Workers’ Union were unsuccessful.
THE MERCURY