GAUTENG METRORAIL STRIKE

Posted on 05 February 2010 by Railways Africa Editor

Metrorail suburban passenger services in central Gauteng were badly disrupted from Monday 25 January by striking employees. Members of the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) refused to work as scheduled in terms of a new roster, claiming this constituted a unilateral change in the employees’ conditions of employment and would result in job losses. Trains in Gauteng North (Pretoria) did not seem to be affected, though services between Johannesburg and Pretoria experienced problems.

According to Metrorail regional manager Sibusiso Ngomane, “interventions rolled out by management aimed to improve efficiencies, optimise energy use and create capacity for improved reliability. We have a strong contingency plan in place designed to minimise disruption to the operations, however we urge our commuters and those who depend on our services to make use of alternative transport at this time,” Sapa reported him saying. “The majority of employees did not heed the call for the strike action, thus helping Metrorail to not completely shut down during the strike.”

After the operator was granted an interim court interdict on Tuesday 26 January, ruling the strike illegal and ordering participants back to work, some of the staff resumed duty. By Thursday 28 January however, less than 50% of trains were running, with management condemning “Satawu’s total disregard” of the court order.

Matters improved on Friday 29 January, the deadline set for strikers to go back to work.

Satawu spokesperson Zenzo Mhlangu was quoted saying that the court interdict required the union and Metrorail to return to negotiations at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on 4 February. If a resolution was not found, Satawu members might go back on strike. “The mood is not a nice one’, he said.

An agreement was reached between Metrorail and Satawu on 29 January, in terms of which Metrorail promised to suspend all actions taken against the union pending the outcome of the Labour Court case, as stipulated in the interim court order, and that all employees who were dismissed for participating in the strike will return to work.

Satawu undertook to comply with the Labour Court interim order and to order its members to resume duty and work the shifts as scheduled, as stipulated in the interim order.

Metrorail extended its apologies to commuters for the inconvenience caused by the strike.