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100 signatures reached
To: Minister Rob Davies, Minister of Trade and Industry
Stop Heineken and others using labour brokers to bypass labour laws
We call on you to instruct the following multinational companies to abide by the labour laws of South Africa and respect workers’ rights: Heineken, Kellogg’s, Ferrero and PepsiCo (Simba Chips). We call on you to remind these corporations that labour broker workers have the right to become the permanent workers of the client company only and to equal treatment after three months of work, as per section 198A of the Labour Relations Act. We call on you to instruct these multinational corporations to stop and refrain from victimising workers who claim these rights. We call on you to cancel their trading licences if they continue to violent the rights of labour broker workers.
Why is this important?
Heineken, Kellogg’s, Ferrero and PepsiCo (Simba Chips) are massively rich multinational companies based in the Netherlands, Italy and the USA respectively. They have clearly bought into the neoliberal idea that the corporations of the 1 percent of the wealthiest people in the world are free to break the law when it comes to the rights of labour broker workers. They have all resisted the rights that parliament enacted for labour broker workers in 2015 with all the power their wealth gives them.
They have victimised and dismissed worker leaders who organised to claim these rights. When workers persisted and forced them to concede these rights, they have responded by taking revenge by retrenching hundreds of these workers.
South Africa’s precarious workers cannot afford the behaviour of these giant corporations. We call on you to call them to order.
When Shoprite made themselves guilty of similar behaviour in Zambia in 2013, the Zambian government called them to order. The Zambian government told Shoprite to respect workers’ rights or lose their trading licence. We call on you to follow the example of the Zambian government.
TELL THESE COMPANIES OF SHAME TO RECOGNISE THEIR PERMANENT EMPLOYEES AND TO GIVE THEM EQUAL TREATMENT
TELL THESE COMPANIES OF SHAME TO REINSTATE ALL DISMISSED AND RETRENCHED WORKERS
TELL THESE COMPANIES OF SHAME YOU WILL CANCEL THEIR TRADING LICENCES IF THEY CONTINUE TO VIOLATE THE RIGHTS OF LABOUR BROKER WORKERS
[i] 80% of labour broker workers should be deemed permanent – report, by Dewald van Rensburg for fin24.com, 16 August 2018
They have victimised and dismissed worker leaders who organised to claim these rights. When workers persisted and forced them to concede these rights, they have responded by taking revenge by retrenching hundreds of these workers.
South Africa’s precarious workers cannot afford the behaviour of these giant corporations. We call on you to call them to order.
When Shoprite made themselves guilty of similar behaviour in Zambia in 2013, the Zambian government called them to order. The Zambian government told Shoprite to respect workers’ rights or lose their trading licence. We call on you to follow the example of the Zambian government.
TELL THESE COMPANIES OF SHAME TO RECOGNISE THEIR PERMANENT EMPLOYEES AND TO GIVE THEM EQUAL TREATMENT
TELL THESE COMPANIES OF SHAME TO REINSTATE ALL DISMISSED AND RETRENCHED WORKERS
TELL THESE COMPANIES OF SHAME YOU WILL CANCEL THEIR TRADING LICENCES IF THEY CONTINUE TO VIOLATE THE RIGHTS OF LABOUR BROKER WORKERS
[i] 80% of labour broker workers should be deemed permanent – report, by Dewald van Rensburg for fin24.com, 16 August 2018