The Star reports that former members of the SA Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) on Tuesday turned to the High Court to force the union to pay the R1 million it owed to them.
The eight former members were in the High Court in Pretoria to get payment from a settlement relating to an unfair retrenchment case in the Labour Court which began in 2010 and ended last year.
Workers said their former employer at the time did not follow due processes during a retrenchment process.
Daniel Mokwatedi said he was retrenched while he was on leave. Mokwatedi and James Tshabalala said the union had enlisted attorneys to represent them, and were successful in the matter. A sum of approximately R6.7m was to be paid to the workers.
Tshabalala said the Labour Court had ordered the former employers to reinstate the workers, but the company claimed there were no positions available, and the two parties agreed on a financial settlement.
“The attorneys told me that Satawu wanted the money to be paid into its bank accounts, and it would then pay us,” Tshabalala said. However, he said that, after receiving proof that the attorneys had deposited the money, Satawu did not pay over.
The union received the money on 3 November last year, but had not deposited it two weeks later. On 21 and 22 November, the workers each received R390,000, which was less than what they were meant to receive as per the settlement agreement.
“When we asked them about the rest of the money, they told us that they had a limit on how much they could transfer, and that they could only transfer the amount the following month,” Tshabalala said.
Court documents stated that Satawu had never denied owing the money. In an email from the union, it promised to pay the balance on 25 and 26 February. “We are still waiting for our money,” Tshabalala said.
During the proceedings, Judge Ronel Tolmey was unhappy that the attorneys representing the workers had not approached the sheriff to serve Satawu with the court papers. She adjourned the matter to 30 March to allow them an opportunity to do so.
This report by Nomaswazi Nkosi is on page 11 of The Star of 29 March 2017
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