Johannesburg – The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) in Carletonville is annoyed and angered by the continuous exploitation of its members at the Woller Freight Company near Welverdiend. The management does not care about its workforce who make the profit for them. This is the company that prefers to employ foreign nationals over locals in what could be termed as cheap labour.
Woller Freight is the Company that provides timber pallets and props in the surrounding mines in Carletonville and has been in existence for almost (10) ten years now.
The company employs workers on a fixed term contract on a year to year basis without accumulation of service benefits, whereby the first three months of this period will serve as a probation.
Workers are still working with torn protective clothing, old safety boots, and overused dust masks thereby exposing them to injuries and occupational diseases.
The union on several occasions has engaged the company which always commit to improving but does the opposite when arriving at the workplace.
This has resulted in workers embarking on a strike to raise their frustrations. Instead of responding to the demands of the worker’s management calls the police to disperse workers and threatens to terminate their contracts. This is one of the most racist management who has guts to give workers payslips by throwing them on the floor.
The Department of Labour in Carletonville has been visiting this company but till to date the condition of workers and the workplace has not improved. This is clear arrogance and disrespect of our South African Constitution and we call upon the Carletonville Department of Labour to be decisive in carrying out its duties by protecting workers of this country.
“We also want to warn Woller Freight or Contracts CC that NUM and its members will never rest nor be silenced when an act of racism and exploitation raise its ugly. If the management does not change its attitude soon, we will mobilize workers and society for an immediate shutdown,” said Mbuyiseli Hibana, NUM Carletonville Regional Secretary.
