News
EFF interfering in labour issues
14 November 2018
We have had reports of members being approached by the EFF who are purporting to act on behalf of employees. Please see below an extract of an article written on the subject which was emailed to one of our Exco Team:
As discussed yesterday, here is an extract of the article written by my fellow director, Nic Preston –
Where it comes to the EFF and its functionaries, it should simply not stick in its nose where it does not belong”. These were some of the Labour Court’s words in the judgment of Calgan Lounge v EFF & Others (J2648/18) handed down on 9 October 2018.
The case concerned an urgent application to the Labour Court to interdict employees of Calgan Lounge (Pty) Ltd (Calgan) from participating in unprotected strike action. In addition, Calgan also sought to interdict the EFF and its members from interfering in the employment relationship between Calgan and its employees.
From June 2018, representatives of the EFF had convened meetings with Calgan’s employees during working hours in order to address purported workplace issues. The EFF handed over a lengthy memorandum to Calgan, on an EFF letterhead, containing various allegations. Most of these allegations were inflammatory. In the memorandum, the EFF indicated that unless their demands were met, it would intensify its next mass protest action against Calgan.
Update following Manco Meeting of 6 November 2018
13 November 2018
On the 26th of October, we sent members an email explaining that the request for extension of the Main Agreement, the Admin Agreement and the Sick Pay Fund Agreement had been sent back to the MEIBC by the DoL and that parties would be meeting again on 6 November to discuss the way forward. At the Manco meeting on 6 November, some of the parties submitted that they needed further time to consider their positions and so weren’t in a position to discuss the requests for extension of any of the agreements mentioned above. However, the Administrator of the MEIBC informed parties that he had taken it upon himself to re-submit the request for extension of the Admin Agreement to the DoL.
Mining Charter Update
30 November 2018
SAEFA’s Engagement with the Department of Mineral Resources regarding the Broad-Based Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter for Mining and Metals
The SA Engineers and Founders Mining Charter Task Team, comprising Clayton Anderson, Ross Williams, Glen Rebello, Detlev Borner and Jaime Goncalves, was set up in May 2018. Its purpose was to address member concerns around the proposed changes to the Mining Charter.
There were engagements with the Department of Mineral Resources (DMR) in May 2018 and again in August 2018 around the following issues:
Main Agreement extension attempt halted
26 October
On 16 October 2018, the Director of Collective Bargaining at the Department of Labour (DoL) sent a letter to the Acting General Secretary of the Metal and Engineering Industries Bargaining Council (MEIBC), informing him that the request for gazettal and extension of the Main Agreement could not be processed.
It has been agreed that the parties will discuss how to respond to this letter at the MEIBC Management Committee Meeting on 6 November 2018.
We have drafted a memo that may be placed on Company notice boards for your employees’ attention.