Workers strike at 1 Military Hospital
Some of the concerns voiced during the protest included staff being paid as little as R400 for two months of employment.
The academic and professional staff association trade union staged a calm, small protest outside the 1 Military hospital on Wednesday against “unfair labour practices”.
The protesters claimed that they had gone months without pay after being employed by a service provider Search Light Cleaning, who won the tender for cleaning the hospital from the military.
Association spokesperson Philip Makwana said the tender was wrongfully awarded and proper procedures were not followed. He said that the matter had been referred to the CCMA, which ruled in their favour, but the military was yet to comply.
“The company (Search Light) doesn’t have an office or any phone numbers we can use to contact them,” said Makwana.
“It never offered these workers provident or unemployment funds and they weren’t given payslips.
“We want 1 Military to terminate their contract with Search Light. We are not fighting with them,” Makwana said.
“Our workers should be employed and paid directly by the military. Why pay Search Light so much money when they refuse to register and pay the workers they employ?”
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Some of the concerns voiced during the protest included staff being paid as little as R400 for two months of employment, who then refused to return to work because they don’t have the money to even cover the basic costs of transport.
The South Africa national defence force said the awarding of tenders was an “external process”.
Rekord has approached Search Light Cleaning for comment, which was still pending at the time of going to print.
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