Satawu accuses Ramos of double standards

Transnet executive salary packages draw harsh criticism JOY ORLEK RECENT REPORTS of the generous salary packages enjoyed by Transnet bosses have attracted strong criticism from the SA Transport and General Workers’ Union (Satawu) which has labelled them ‘obscene and totally unjustified’. “When we consider the perennial stiff opposition that we faced from this group this year when we negotiated salary increases for our members we find it hard to understand how this company can justify giving one employee R200 000 a month while they refuse to give another R3 000 per month,” Satawu general secretary Randall Howard said. “The high salary packages negate all the goodwill that Transnet may have earned among the workers under Maria Ramos’s leadership since she took the helm in 2003,” he added. “It appears that inflation targeting, which drove the setting of the wage mandates, only applies to workers and not executive management. The Transnet CEO will only win the respect of Satawu if she plays the game by the same rules as she expects much lower paid workers to play by.” Howard says that the CEO’s salary is almost triple that of the State President. “Does that mean that running Transnet is three times harder than running the Republic of South Africa?” He quotes media reports stating that Ramos takes home R2.35 million per annum. “We call on the CEO to declare her full annual salary package and perks transparently in order for us to judge for ourselves whether she is practising double standards or not. “In the context of the restructuring process which is now unfolding and in which Transnet has proposed closures of business units, it is quite clear to us that workers are again expected to bear the brunt of neo liberal economic policies which have plagued our revolution for the last 11 years without any success.”