Vryheid Hospital security guards on strike
Hospital security guards abandoned their posts this morning and refused to return to work.
Additional security guards had to be deployed temporarily at the Vryheid Hospital by the Department of Health today, after Ilanga security guards abandoned their posts and refused to return to work.
One of the disgruntled guards indicated that there were 48 security guards from the Vryheid Hospital, and 90 more security guards from the clinics around AbaQulusi, that would not return to work until their grievances were attended to.
The Ilanga Security guards, who went on strike said they were tired of begging for the bonuses due to them that the company hadn’t paid out since March last year. They refused to return to work until the bonuses are paid, and stood in protest outside the hospital gates.
“You can’t work on an empty stomach,” said the angry workers to the company’s management team who went up to the hospital to address the matter.
Management informed the workers that they could expect to receive their bonuses by this Friday at the latest, according to a list issued to the company by the union representatives.
The guards were not at all happy with this arrangement and said that they would not be going back to work until their money was paid into their accounts.
One of the managers also reminded the guards that striking put the company at risk of losing its contract with the Department of Health and warned that R1000 was lost for every hour the guards were spending outside the hospital premises. He went on to ask if they wanted to lose their jobs.
The Ilanga employees seemed unfazed by this remark and said that only an SMS notification saying that their money had been deposited would result them setting foot in the hospital.
