NUMSA and Kentz at loggerheads

More strike action at the Medupi power station building site was averted this week when the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) and management representing Alstom and its sub-contractor, Kentz met last Friday to discuss the suspension and disciplinary hearings of more than 700 workers. Workers were reportedly suspended by Kentz for participating in an illegal strike on May 8.
Union spokesperson, Stephen Nhlapo, told Northern News on Monday that Friday’s talks with Alstom and Kentz is a step closer to an amicable solution for the suspended workers.
“We made it very clear at the meeting that the disciplinary steps taken by the companies are too harsh. Many of these workers were not even at work on the day of the strike. Some were on night shift. We need to sit around the table and facilitate the process. We as a union would not want to see any of our members dismissed especially if they were not even participating in the strike.”
According to Nhlapho, Alstom employs around 1200 workers at the Medupi site, half of these belonging to NUMSA . “We are very concerned that the company had eight work stoppages in the past four months. Something is wrong when worker’s salaries are miss-calculated month after month. There is either a problem with management or someone is trying to sabotage the company,” he added.
“We believe that Alstom would have dismissed all 1200 workers if we failed to intervene on Thursday. We marched to the site and handed over a memorandum at Alstom’s offices, demanding that the disciplinary hearings be set aside so that we can negotiate a solution that will suite everybody. Our concern is that dismissing more than a thousand workers would ultimately lead to more violence in Lephalale.”
Nhlapo says negotiations will continue on Monday, 1 July. “We are looking for long term solutions that will enable workers to protest without fear of being dismissed.”
Jerome Boyet, Alstom Country President for South Africa, said in a statement this week:  “Alstom has contracted GEA to supply and install air cooled condensers at Medupi, for which the installation on site has been subcontracted to Kentz.  GEA is responsible for the technology, the manufacture as well as managing Kentz on site.  However, Alstom is committed to labour stability and positive engagement in a constructive manner with the unions on the Eskom project sites.  Alstom brokered discussions between Kentz and NUMSA, leveraging our existing relationship with NUMSA on other matters to help solve the matter.  Nevertheless, we feel that questions on the progress of the interactions between Kentz and its employees should be directed to Kentz.”
Northern News contacted Kentz who responded by saying: “Following five months of continuous and rolling industrial unrest at the project site involving multiple contractors, every effort has been made by the main contractors, Eskom and the employers group, to negotiate settlement of the various issues raised by the workforce. The project employers group has conceded many issues in an effort to establish harmony at site; however the workforce at site continues to stage unprotected strikes without utilising the dispute resolution process as outlined in the Project Labour Agreement. This left Kentz with no alternative but to take the disciplinary course of action related to the unprotected strike which took place on Wednesday 8th May 2013.
The labour unrest experienced by Kentz has been disruptive to the project and, as has been noted by the South African Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Reserve Bank, the continuous labour unrest in South Africa is damaging the South African economy.The completion of the Medupi project is of national importance and the continued refusal of the workforce to work within agreed industrial processes to resolve grievances continues to trouble this crucial infrastructure project.”