Employment unrest leads to strike at Komati mill
Dissatisfaction with the employment processes at RCL Foods' local mill led the Nkomazi Youth Development Forum (NYDF) to stage a protest march last Tuesday morning.
KOMATIPOORT – A group of community members voiced their outrage regarding employment processes at RCL Food’s local mill for the second time last Tuesday, following a protest in early December.
On this occasion, the protesters barricaded the entrance to the mill with rocks hoping that they would get a quick response from management by delaying production.
Following that, the group met with representatives of the Nkomazi Local Municipality and tribal leaders, as well as Mr Conrad Stander from RCL Foods.
The NYDF proposed that 70 per cent of the mill’s employees should be recruited locally, with contractors only allowed to bring 30 per cent of staff from other areas. It stated that this arrangement is only fair as the local community is most affected by the company and struggles to get jobs elsewhere.
The group decided to embark on a march under police supervision to hand over a memorandum to RCL Foods representatives as it said no satisfactory agreement had been reached yet.
After about an hour’s protest outside the mill, Mr Pieter van Greunen and Stander accepted the memorandum on behalf of the company. The NYDF gave them seven days to respond to their grievances.
Demands in the memorandum include a hiring strategy that is suitable to everyone and proof that contractors have all the necessary permits.
Van Greunen responded that they would happily reply within seven days and dismissed comments that Stander was not listening to the grievances of the community. He stated that everything is communicated to top management and that it is RCL Food’s decision, not Stander’s.
“We don’t believe that threatening the company is the correct approach. We propose continued dialogue. In seven days’ time, Mr Stander will set up a meeting with you and we will give you a reply,” he stated.
The group is now eagerly awaiting the promised answer. “We will go back to the municipality to explore other options. If they fail to listen to us on a peaceful march, we will have to shut them down until they answer us and they will lose production. But we will follow the correct procedure,” said the NYDF’s Mr Michael Mabuza.
