CWAO IN THE NEWS

The SWF has been informed that several casual workers have been seriously injured over the past week in the Mister Sweet factory after Mister Sweet bosses put pressure on them to handle dangerous and unfamiliar machinery.

Mister Sweet has also allegedly breached s17 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act by continuing to keep the factory running using untrained casual workers while failing to make sure that they have health and safety officers.

Last week a casual worker who had no experience or training was using the cutter. It was not moving sweets and because the worker had not been trained on what to do, he tried to push the sweets under the cutter and that is how his finger was cut off, workers say.

Workers also report that casuals are operating the cooker, which can be dangerous, without training.

Workers on the scene reported that the supervisor was now getting the blame from management and the injured workers have been told that if they do not speak to the media, they will be rewarded with permanent jobs. This worker was in hospital for a few days.

Mister Sweet is again putting profits before safety. With hundreds of workers out on strike, the company only has a very small workforce sleeping inside the factory to do the jobs of a permanent and skilled workforce.

The sweet-making machines require fully trained machine operators to run them but because these workers are all on strike, Mister Sweet has been recruiting casual workers with no experience in machine operating. These workers are not informed what work they've signed up for and most believed they would only be packaging packets of sweets into boxes.

These injured workers are already living a terrible life, working for labour brokers without permanent jobs, and now they will be unable to work for quite some time. Mister Sweet has also allegedly said that the injured workers are responsible for injuring themselves.

The attached photo also shows the bunk beds that Mister Sweet moved into the factory last week for these casual workers to sleep on. Again, these casual workers were not told they would be sleeping in the factory in crowded and unsanitary conditions without access to proper bathrooms. They were only told they were being hired for work and accommodation would be provided. They were unaware that they would be crowded into the factory itself.

Please contact for interviews:
Organisers:
Jacob Potlaki on 082 810 6134
Edgar Mokgola on 071 455 3500
Mister Sweet Negotiating Team:
Asithandile Jam-Jam on 065 6923738
Solomon Ndaba on 073 706 2633
Lindiwe Maseke on 083 753 5268
S. Ngobese on 066 4754979
Fikile Zwane on 072 462 7077

Category: PRESS RELEASE | DISPUTES