Retrenchment of 250 workers postponed to January

The retrenchment of nearly 250 scheduled workers at locomotive and rolling stock manufacturing firm Commuter Transport and Locomotive Engineering (CTLE) Nigel was postponed to allow for a detailed consultation process to take place.
National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) said the union and CTLE executive members met in November and decided to postpone the retrenchment process until January.
“The meeting resolved to expedite the consultation process and take no more than 60 days in order to conclude the process in January,” CTLE spokesperson, Thembalethu Fikizolo said.
The retrenchment came into motion after CTLE lost a R50-billionTransnet tender to four foreign companies. According to NUMSA the deal was illegal and Transnet should have prioritised South African companies with significant local capacity in the production and manufacturing of rolling stock.
NUMSA presented a memorandum of demands to the Minister of Transport Dipuo Peters on October 16 and said they are still to receive a response from government.
“The continually ignoring of local capability places business and jobs at serious risk in the whole sector. These threats do not only affect our companies, but also impact on suppliers and our families. The lack of contracts from Transnet is tantamount to disinvestment from our areas with disastrous consequences for us all. We are convinced that the talk about localisation within Transnet is nothing else but mere lips service”, NUMSA’s deputy general secretary Karl Cloete said.
CTLE said the retrenchment of 250 scheduled workers is unavoidable and is one that will conclude after the consultation process is completed.
“The bipartite members (CTLE, NUMSA) re-committed to engage constructively for the benefit of all stakeholders and will communicate progress updates as and when appropriate”, Karl concluded.