Labour tensions between the stevedoring community and Transnet seem to have calmed down, at least for now.
The Revolutionary Transport Union of South Africa (Retusa) held a meeting with heads of Transnet Port Terminals earlier this week in an attempt to resolve the issue of permanent employment for staff placed by labour brokers.
This after a march of stevedores led by Retusa to TPT’s head office in Kingsmead, Durban, last weekend, where the union handed over its memorandum of demands.
According to Retusa communications liaison officer, Philani Zungu, Transnet was refusing to acknowledge these employees as permanent in spite of a Constitutional Court decision that gave Transnet – and other companies using labour brokers – three months from the time of the judgment to do so.
“We have given TPT seven days to respond, failing which workers will then decide what action to take,” he told FTW Online. “However, we are not very positive regarding the outcome of negotiations.”
Zungu said that TPT still held the position that staff working for the port operator that had been employed by labour brokers were in fact “independent contractors”.
“Transnet says these employees do not belong to them so we have requested documents from them to show who they belong to,” he added.
