/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) in Kwa-Zulu Natal welcomes the decision of the Labour Court in Durban over a matter between us and Sacks Packaging. NUMSA went to the Labour Court in Durban in order to get relief because the company had concluded a Transfer of Business agreement with Safety Workplace Business which would have resulted in workers losing their bargaining rights. Part of the reason we went to court was because we suspected the Transfer of Business agreement was a sham, and was in fact, a ploy by the company to outsource parts of its operations to a labour broker. Sacks Packaging claims that Safety Workplace Business is a “service provider”. We reject that title because we are well aware that many Labour brokers are using that title in order to extend temporary contracts well beyond the legally stipulated 3-month period. On the 27th of August we launched an urgent application to the Labour Court for the following:

That it is declared that the transfer of contracts of employment of our members from Sacks Packaging to Safety Workplace Business is invalid and unlawful.

That Sacks Packaging is interdicted and restrained from transferring or purporting to transfer the contracts of employment of any of our members Safety Workplace Business in terms of Section 197 of the Labour Relations Act, 1995 or for any other cause.

Background:

Sacks Packaging manufactures bags for packaging and it decided to outsource all those functions which were not related to the actual manufacture of bags. (It characterizes the packing and movement of the goods after being packed by various employees as non-core work.)

On the 20th of August the company concluded a Transfer of Business agreement with Workplace Business Solutions and a day later the Service Level Agreement was concluded. It was the conclusion of these agreements which triggered the launching of the urgent application to the Labour Court by NUMSA. The matter was heard on the 1st of September, the date on which the transfer of business was to happen and it was to affect 96 employees.

Our Arguments to the court

We argued that the purported transfer of business was a sham and that Safety Workplace Business were little more than a labour broker. This was re-enforced by the fact that employees still answered to Sacks Packaging managers, even though the business had supposedly transferred ownership. The service level agreement did not contain the elements one would expect if there was a genuine transfer to a third party. At the time of signature, the machinery that Safety Workplace Business would lease from Sacks Packaging to enable it to function as a business was not finalized, the exact nature of the services to be performed had not been described and a fixed price for the service had not been set.

We are pleased that the Labour Court found in our favour and on the 8th of September declared the transfer or purported transfer of the contracts of employment of employees by Sacks Packaging to Safety Workplace Business solutions as invalid and unlawful. The judge also agreed with us that the Service Level Agreement was a sham. We welcome this finding by the court because it also demonstrated that section 197 which allows for the transfer of a business cannot be manipulated by employers for their own selfish benefit.

We have been vindicated. We were convinced that the employer was attempting to split the bargaining unit and reduce the negotiating power of workers in the union. The transfer of business was concluded at a time when we were trying to negotiate an improvement in wages and benefits for workers. The company was also clearly trying to outsource certain functions of its operations to a labour brokering company and we stopped them. Ever since NUMSA won the landmark judgment on Labour Brokers at the Constitutional Court, employers have found creative ways around the law in order to unlawfully continue exploiting workers through that system.

We are grateful for the legal team and out officials for their hard work in ensuring this victory for our members. We will continue to fight for workers and their families’. 

Aluta continua!

The struggle continues!

Issued by The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa