Chinese employer forces KZN worker to skin and cut up dead dog
The South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union are up in arms over the ill treatment of an employee in Harding.
A man in Harding, in the Ugu District of KZN, forced his employee to skin and cut a dead dog, allegedly as a form of punishment.
The incident happened on August 27, and the dog was already dead before the employee was instructed to skin it and cut it into pieces – leaving him traumatised.
In a statement, the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) said the employer, who is Chinese, was reported to the SPCA and the Department of Labour for an act of cruelty towards humans and animals.
The employer owns a family store in the area of Harding in northern KZN.
The Department of Employment and Labour (DEL) in 2019 issued a compliance order to the employer for breaching the following labour legislations: The Basic Conditions of Employment Act [75 of 1997], the Unemployment Insurance Fund Act [63 of 2001], Unemployment Insurance Contribution Act [4 of 2002], and the Sectoral Determination No nine.
Saccawu says the employer did not comply.
“Instead of complying with the order from the DEL, this employer took the criminal route of blaming the employee whose name is known to us [and instructing him] to cut and skin a dead dog because he is suspected to be the one who brought DEL inspectors to his premises,” reads the statement.
Saccawu regional secretary Mathew Ndlovu adds that they are going to do all they could to get justice.
He says the employee who was forced to skin and cut the dog was left traumatised by the incident.
“He added that it was difficult to communicate with the shop owner. We have been consulting with his [legal] representative who has since left him. There is no email address and no phones.”
Ndlovu says the employer was disregarding any communication.
”We suspect that this is a blame game. He hasn’t responded to the Department of Labour’s compliance order, he owes [some employees] thousands of rands. We don’t understand why the department hasn’t forced the order. We think that he is [victimising] workers that he thinks are reporting him to the department,” he explains.
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