Dozens of truck drivers have had their salaries cut by thousands after their employers allegedly dumped them onto a labour broker.
Their union, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu), is embroiled in a labour court challenge with freight company Moody Blue Trade Invest, while the industry’s bargaining council has appointed an inspector to gather evidence in a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration case against Green Door Cargo 2 Congo.
This was after the companies had also “off-loaded” their permanent employees, some of whom had worked for the companies for over 10 years, to RP Africa Fleet Services.
Some drivers at Moody Blue told Sowetan that they were forced to resign and join RP Africa Fleet Services to do the same jobs they were doing before, but at a lower pay.
Some of Green Door’s employees showed Sowetan their payslips which showed that their basic salaries had dropped from R8,000 in 2014 to R4,800 18 months ago.
The National Bargaining Council of Road Freight and Logistics Industry stipulates a minimum salary of R11,000 for truck drivers.
A Zimbabwean truck driver who resides in Tembisa, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he joined Green Door more than four years ago taking home a basic salary of R8,000. In addition, he used to receive a R1,500 food allowance and a R1,200 bonus for reaching his truck off-loading point in Koelwezi, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) within 10 days.
However, his salary has dropped to R4,800 in three years. He showed Sowetan copies of his payslips dating back to early 2016.
“The quality of my life has constantly gone down over the last five years… Those who asked questions or tried to fight this are now unemployed,” he said while adding that 40 employees who had questioned the salary cuts had been either laid off or told that the routes they were operating were no longer available.
Richard Hall, a manager at Green Door, said they did not employ any cross-border drivers. “We have an agreement with RP Africa to supply us with cross-border drivers.”
He said the company would not comment on the issue unless Sowetan revealed the employees it had spoken to. He also declined to respond to questions relating to the salary cuts Green Door’s employees had seen over the years.
“Once again, unless we know who these employees are we cannot comment. Suffice to say that as far as we are concerned, this is untrue,” Hall said.
Article sourced from SowetanLIVE
