CWAO IN THE NEWS

The workers employed by plastic and box recycling company, M&N Waste of Boksburg, won a victory at the CCMA today when M&N Waste finally agreed to pay back R300 792, 25 it owed collectively to 7 workers.

Some of the workers had been working at the company for 27 years. Other young workers had been working for 6-7 years. The workers got different rates of pay but none of them were being paid the minimum wage of R27.58. Some were getting as low as R14.25 per hour, R18.75 per hour and R20.95 per hour!!! Some workers said they had been paid this low amount for three years. They were sitting on the same rate of pay without getting the National Minimum Wage or the yearly increase to the National Minimum Wage.

When the workers first came to the CWAO office, we contacted their employer. "Their employer has been very arrogant over the phone when we wanted to engage with them. He said to us is he the only one who is breaking the law in South Africa? That was the kind of attitude he gave us. We decided to assist these workers by referring a case of Minimum Wage to the CCMA" said CWAO organiser Connie Masekwameng.

The workers also reported that several times, they had gone to the Department of Labour in Boksburg but no-one assisted them. "So the boss kept on telling them, 'no, you can go wherever you want, I don't care, I have my people at Department of Labour and CCMA'" added Masekwameng.

The employer was trying to intimidate and take advantage of the workers because most are from Mozambique.

The workers did an excellent job of representing themselves at CCMA, with the support of CWAO in preparing the case paperwork. Unfortunately, the law says workers can only claim 3 years worth of underpaid National Minimum Wage amounts. So this is all we could claim. But some workers were underpaid for much longer.

The employer said he doesn't have money to pay back the whole R300k plus today, but will pay every worker monthly instalments over the next 12 months. Going forward all workers will be receiving the National Minimum Wage.

As we can see from this, the company was robbing the workers and probably thought that it would never be challenged! We must work together as workers and the CWAO to enforce the Minimum Wage at all times! The Minimum Wage is already too low and workers cannot be robbed even of this little that they should be paid!

Please contact CWAO if you are not being paid the legal hourly Minimum Wage and we will support you to claim it back.

You can WhatsApp us on 082 812 1934 or phone us.

Category: THE NEW WORKER | WORKERS' STORIES