Refuse collectors demand better working conditions
A month-long strike by Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s (NMBM) refuse collectors was called off last week after the striking workers felt that their employer had roped in […]
Labour
NUMSA vows to fight General Motors to the bitter end
The unexpected announcement last week by General Motors South Africa that it is closing its Port Elizabeth-based car manufacturing plant was met with shock and dismay by both […]
Ex-miners march to Alexander Forbes
An apparent delay by the government and its private financial service provider in processing payments of retirement benefits for the country’s former mineworkers is causing […]
Construction company unfairly dismissed two Zimbabwean workers
Wilson Jona and Kudakwashe Watura, both Zimbabwean lost their jobs as labourers at a construction company in Paarl after they had asked for the overtime […]
Cosatu adds its voice to the SASSA debacle
The Congress of South African Trade Union, COSATU has called for the resignation of Bathabile Dlamini following the SASSA debacle.
Repressive times in Egypt: Textile strike clampdown
Workers at Egypt’s Misr Spinning and Weaving Company were forced to end a two day strike on 8 February, due to the arrest of five female workers and threats to arrest more and fire striking workers.
Murder accused farmer denied bail
Murder accused farmer denied bail at Vredendal Magistrate court.
Cleaners’ union wants the minimum wage to be raised to R5,000
The recent announcement by the government that the national minimum wage should be set at R3,500 a month has not settled well with some employees, including their labour organisations.
The contentious issue of the national minimum wage has been a subject of debate for many years the government, employers and labour unions. Labour unions feel that R3,500 is just a drop in an ocean in light of the current socio-economic situation plaguing the country.
Domestic workers’ union says the proposed minimum wage is too little
Whilst delivering his speech on the proposed minimum wage of R3,500 a month, Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa said that the national minimum wage was aimed at reducing income poverty and inequality. The advisory panel which was looking into the the issue proposed that wages in the domestic work sector should be set at 75% of the proposed national minimum wage. In a report released in June by The National Minimum Wage Research Initiative of the School of Economic and Business Sciences at the University of Witwatersrand, 90% of domestic workers earn less than R3,120 a month.
KwaZakhele Spar workers strike for better working conditions
Hundreds of workers of Spar retail shops in Port Elizabeth embarked on a strike accusing their employer of gross violation of employment rules and regulations. The agitated workers thronged outside the main gate where they protested while armed police kept a close watch.
Forced to sign with Smart Purse
An outsourced company has been failing careworkers in Gauteng.
After protesting for three months against their employment being outsourced by the Gauteng Department of Health, community health care workers including those in Alexandra said they have given up the fight.
They eventually decided to sign up with the outsourced company, Smart Purse, because they were locked out and not allowed to work.
Frontline Community Health Workers kept in the dark
In a country that has the biggest divide between public and private healthcare, community careworkers are not recognized as employees and do not enjoy labour rights and the protection of SA’s labour laws.
In a gloomy room in a cinder block RDP house so cramped there is barely enough space to move his wheelchair, Masixole Sosikela, 29, looks as if he is part of the furniture.
Sosikela lost the use of his legs in a car accident three years ago and has since been confined to the small house he shares with his mother and young brother. With his mother at work and his brother at school, he spends his days alone in the house in BM Section, Greenpoint, Khayelitsha. His only daytime visitor is home community health worker, Nikezwa Bara, who comes to see him three times a week. She spends about an hour with him, washing and dressing his bedsores, emptying his catheter and changing his linen. Bara also prepares him something to eat in the kitchen and wheels him outside to enjoy a bit of sunshine.
Bara is one of 106 community health workers (CHWs) in Khayelitsha who offer essential health and social services to over 1,000 patients who are bed-ridden or chronically or terminally ill. For these patients, the CHWs are a lifeline of care and company.
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