Rea Vaya bus service drivers downed tools after a recent salary dispute over unpaid wages. Picture: Boxer Ngwenya
The National Union of Metalworkers South Africa (Numsa) said it welcomed the payment of Rea Vaya drivers October salaries.
The drivers downed tools after a recent salary dispute over unpaid wages, bringing bus services to a halt and leaving thousands of commuters in the lurch last week.
The payment of the drivers’ salaries put an end to the strike.
Last week, Numsa condemned the City of Joburg for its failure to pay operating companies PioTrans and Litsamaiso.
Numsa spokesperson Phakamile Hlubi-Majola said: “The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) has noted that workers employed at Rea Vaya have finally been paid their salaries. This follows the intervention of the union, after the City of Joburg (COJ) failed to pay the bus operating companies PioTrans and Letsamaiso, which meant that workers’ salaries were not paid on time.”
Hlubi-Majola said Numsa would like to see an end to this recurring problem as it had an impact on commuters and the livelihoods of affected employees.
“We hope that this situation has been resolved once and for all and that the COJ will prevent delays like this happening in future.
“We are demanding that there must a final resolution to this problem because workers’ salaries have been delayed almost every month since the beginning of the year. Our members are hard-working men and women who are raising their families. In these tough economic times, any delay in the salary causes an immediate crisis for them,” she said.
Hlubi-Majola said it was unacceptable that the drivers were denied their salaries while city officials were paid on time.
“It cannot be right that the councillors of the COJ get their salaries on time, but other employees of the city, whose taxes contribute to the salaries of the very same councillors, must beg to be paid. This is something which must be urgently rectified and we demand guarantees from the city, in writing, that this will never happen again,” she said.
The Star