Employees at the Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB) are currently picketing outside the organisation’s head office in Cape Town as part of a nationwide strike – organised by trade union, Solidarity – over wages.
The strike started yesterday (Wednesday) and is expected to continue at least until the end of the week. Workers are demanding an 8.5% salary increase and an increased car allowance.
Spokesperson for the PPECB, Tina-Louise Rabie, told FTW Online that the company’s 7% increase offer was in line with inflation, noting that agricultural producers had been hard hit by the drought last year and that this trend would continue this year.
Strikers have threatened to disrupt business at the PPECB – which offers certification and cold chain management services for producers and exporters of perishable food products – as “much as possible”. Solidarity chairperson Ettienne Rahl said this would have a major effect on perishable exports.
“We’re hoping exporters will put pressure on the PPECB to force them to give in to our demands,” he said, adding that if there was no resolution by Friday, workers would return to work on a “go-slow basis”.
But contingency plans have been put in place to deal with the potential impact of a strike, according to Rabie, who said that the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries had promised to assist.
About 17% of the PPECB employees from the Langkloof, Sunday’s River Valley, Montague Gardens, Tzaneen, Gauteng Centre, Ceres, Groblersdal and Nelspruit offices were on strike.
