Labour

Frontline Community Health Workers kept in the dark

14th November 2016 Noluthando Matshoba 0

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.

Xolobeni pits community rights versus mining

11th October 2016 GroundUp 0

The Umgungundlovu community of Xolobeni on the Wild Coast has filed an application in the High Court in Pretoria, against a number of government officials, including the Minister of Mineral Resources and the Minister of Rural Development and Land Reform. The community is represented by the firm of human rights lawyer, Richard Spoor.

Robertson Winery workers on strike

13th September 2016 GroundUp 0

Workers at Robertson Winery are on strike calling on the winery to pay them R8,500 a month.
The workers, who protested outside the winery say they are currently earning between R2,900 and R3,500 a month before deductions, according to Karel Swartz, deputy general secretary of the Commercial, Stevedoring and Allied Workers’ Union (CSAAWU).

Abattoir workers win unfair dismissal case on appeal

13th September 2016 GroundUp 0

Robertson Abattoir workers have successfully appealed a Labour Court judgment in their case of unfair dismissal.
The Labour Court’s ruling against the workers last year was set aside recently by the Labour Appeal Court and the workers’ case will now be sent back to that court.

Youth force local shops to close over jobs for outsiders

13th September 2016 Max Qwayi 0

A shopping complex in Harare, Khayelitsha was placed under siege by a mob of about 30 angry youth from the area who demanded jobs at the small businesses be given to local residents.
The youth, believed to have been led by local ANC Youth League organiser, Yanga Mjingwana, converged on the Hilltop shopping centre where Spar is the anchor tenant. During lunchtime they disrupted shoppers and forced the closure of Learn to Earn and the Moholo Lounge.

Study links wage increase to job losses on farms

11th August 2016 GroundUp 0

The 2013 increase in the minimum wage for farm workers did cause a drop in employment, new research by the Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit at the University of Cape Town suggests.
However, the researchers were unable to determine exactly how many jobs the wage increase cost. The study also found that the average wage for rural farm workers increased, meaning that the legislation was being followed.

Remembering Rana Plaza – 3 years on!

25th May 2016 Mzi Velapi 0

Three years after the horrific incident that left more than a thousand dead and thousands more injured, the  implementation and enforcement of health and safety in the workplace is still not receiving proper attention.

Mineworkers could be compensated with billions

25th May 2016 Elitsha reporters 0

The recent High Court judgement certifying mineworkers suffering from silicosis and TB as a class has been welcomed by mining unions, jurists and mine workers.
The South Gauteng High Court ruled against 29 respondent gold mining companies allowing a class action suit by thousands of workers suffering from the fatal lung disease, silicosis and co-related tuberculosis.

No going back

25th May 2016 Bernard Chiguvare GroundUp 0

A group of almost 100 pensioners from the Eastern Cape picketed parliament. On the first two nights, they slept in front of the Parliament building
A group of pensioners from the Eastern Cape who have been picketing at Parliament in Cape Town have vowed to remain at the Parliament precinct until they get their moneys.

COSATU can learn from Corbyn to avoid slipping into irrelevance

8th December 2015 Terry Bell 0

“The ANC came before democracy.” This statement by President Jacob Zuma was obviously incorrect since the concept of democracy pre-dated the formation of the ANC in 1912 by about 2,500 years.
It came to us from the ancient Greeks who also provided the term, taken from demos (people) and kratos (power). However Zuma did go on to explain that he meant his comment to apply to South Africa where the first non-racial parliamentary elections were staged 82 years after the birth of what became the ANC.
This, along with comments made at last week’s Cosatu congress, put the whole question of what democracy means into focus. At the same time, the media was again accused of misleading the voting public and so undermining both the ANC and its trade union partner.
But does universal adult suffrage — votes for all to a parliament — equal democracy? And is the media really able, to a large degree, to manipulate public opinion and, therefore, harm the trade union movement and the country?