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The Congress of South African Trade Unions join its affiliated union SACTWU in condemning the delinquent employers in the footwear and leather sector for unilaterally forcing their employees to exchange the paid annual leave and paid public holiday entitlements for paid leave during the 21-day lockdown. We support SACTWU’s decision to declare a dispute against these employers at the leather bargaining council. This level of pure arrogance needs to confronted head-on and we urge all workers to join SACTWU and work with the union to take a stand against these exploitative tendencies.

 Social partners at Nedlac agreed that all non-essential workers are to be placed on special leave during the shutdown.  This is not supposed to come from annual, sick or any other leave.  Employers must pay workers the wages due to them and continue to pay them during this compulsory shut down.

The Federation demands that all these callous employers reverse their unilateral decision. These employers are ignoring the pleas of the President for businesses not to victimise the workers during this lockdown.

We reiterate our call for all workers that have been bullied into taking their leave for the purpose of shut down to join COSATU unions and report such employers to COSATU. Working with our affiliated unions we stand ready to confront and deal with all delinquent employers who are opportunistically using this crisis to exploit and victimize workers.

Issued by COSATU