South Africa: Workers Slam Union Over SAB Settlement

Fired SAB Ltd workers have lashed out at the Food and Allied Workers' Union (Fawu) for allegedly agreeing to a retrenchment package without their approval, AllAfrica announced on January 25. They say they did not give the union a mandate to reach such an agreement.

Fawu legal officer Vusi Landu said the agreement reached in October last year stated that 61 employees would be compensated for 21 months' pay while 53 others would be compensated for12 months. This was in line with a ruling by Cape High Court Judge Pat Gamble on September 3, 2004.

In his judgment, Judge Gamble said SAB had "completely ignored" certain selection criteria for retrenchment as contained in an agreement binding the two parties.

Of the company's 500 workers, about 138 were retrenched at three plants across the country between May and August 2001, and SAB Limited spent more than R23 million settling with them. It was also ordered by the court to settle Fawu's legal bill of R1.2 million.

Now former employee Wiseman Gquma claims Fawu held talks with the company in 2004 without consulting workers. He said Fawu had betrayed them and accused the union of "sleeping in the same bed" with SAB Limited.

"What is disturbing is that the union decided to agree on the settlement without consulting us. It did not ask us whether we agreed or not. We should have been compensated for 35 months. We have been robbed. I fail to understand why Fawu has agreed on the settlement," he said.

Gquma said although some retrenched workers had received their cheques late last year, he had refused to take his. As a result of his retrenchment Gquma could not keep up with the repayment of his bonds and had been evicted from two homes in Gugulethu in 2004.

Lungile Tyesi, who was also retrenched, criticised Fawu for accepting "peanuts". He said workers should have been compensated for 35 months.

Landu said the offer from the company to settle the matter out of court came in January last year, after which the union was involved in an extensive consultative process. He denied they had failed to consult workers.

"I visited and consulted retrenched workers across the country. They gave us a mandate to reach this settlement."

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