AFTER the alleged dismissal of 600 Makro workers, members of the South African Commercial Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) picketed again outside the US Embassy in Tshwane on Wednesday, 5 April.
The union has described the dismissal of the workers as unlawful, claiming that Massmart does not respect their employees.
According to the workers, the initial dismissal was 400 employees nationwide and it has now risen to 600. Now the union is calling for urgent reinstatement of unfairly dismissed workers.
Scores of Makro workers who are affiliated to Saccawu were joined by Cosatu members.
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Saccawu president Louise Thipe said that they are forced to protest because of Walmart's arrogance.
"We are forced by circumstances to find ourselves here and as long as we don’t get answers from them, we will forever be in the streets. A day will come when we as workers will be saying that we have fought and won," said Thipe.
Desperate dismissed Makro worker, Mthokozisi Dlamini, told Daily Sun that he was forced to send his family back to his wife’s home soon after losing his job.
He said he worked at Makro for almost 10 years until the strike started in 2022, which led to them being dismissed.
“Since then, my situation has become very tough. I even took the decision to send my wife and kid back to the wife's home," said Dlamini.
Solly Phetoe, deputy general-secretary of Cosatu, said they will take action if their demands are not met.
"Cosatu will engage the civil society and the alliance to call for boycott of all the shops in SA, including the subsidiaries of Walmart Massmart," said Phetoe.
Darlington Ndlovu, Makro company councillor chairperson in Saccawu, said they have a challenge as the employer uses dismissal as a form of retrenchment.
"This is because we are only asking for a mere increase percentage so that our livelihoods can continue and our children and grandchildren can build a future," said Ndlovu.
The officials at the US embassy refused to come out to receive the memorandum of protesters, claiming that they were not safe.
Brian Leroni, Massmart senior vice president corporate affairs, disputed the claims regarding the dismissal of 600 employees.
“The number of dismissed employees is 384 and further 200 employees have been suspended and the suspension comes after completing a three-month long disciplinary investigation,” said Leroni.
He said Makro dismissed employees who behaved unlawfully during picketing action at Makro stores in Germiston, Centurion, Silverlakes and Wonderboom.
“The union and the employees were provided with detailed disciplinary charges which were supported by videos and photos that clearly identified each employee involved in the unlawful behaviour,” said Leroni.
