Johnathan Paoli
THE National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has threatened to take bus company Putco to the Labour Court after talks over the treatment of suspended drivers collapsed.
The union issued a statement on Tuesday and confirmed that negotiations had broken down and said that Putco was mistreating its suspended workers.
Putco suspended more than 100 bus drivers in 2022 for participation in an unprotected strike.
Numsa General Secretary Irvin Jim said they did not find common ground during talks and that Putco wanted to dictate to the union on how to defend workers.
Jim said Putco has demanded the union guarantees that CCMA arbitration hearings are conducted and concluded by the beginning of April this year, failing which, workers will not be paid their salaries while on suspension.
“The union cannot agree to this because there are at least 120 workers who must be defended. It is clear that Putco is attempting to sabotage our cases with this demand. If we were to adhere to this, dozens of workers would lose their jobs, because we would have failed to defend them adequately,” Jim said.
In addition, Jim said that the union demanded workers who are currently on suspension for the 2022 unprotected strike, not be compelled to report to Putco depos, and that workers on suspension, who have been dismissed for taking sick leave, must be immediately reinstated.
However, Putco spokesperson Lindokuhle Xulu has denied treating workers unfairly.
“Putco stated that suspensions were due to gross misconduct by the employees and that the company could not reinstate or uplift their suspensions without following due process currently under way at the CCMA [Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration]. Putco is of the view that NUMSA’s suggestion that the hearings could be concluded by November 2024 is unreasonable,” Xulu said.
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