Court to rule on Medupi demobilisation

A special labour court hearing was held in Lephalale this week to hear an application brought by the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) against Murray & Roberts and Medupi Fabrication. Numsa alleges that the companies disguised the retrenchment of hundreds of Medupi workers in September last year as demobilisations in terms of the Project Labour Agreement (PLA) and therefore failed to comply with section 189A (s189A) of the Labour Relations Act.
Numsa wants the two companies to comply with s189A before terminating the employment contracts of its members and to reinstate around 700 workers whose employment was allegedly  terminated without compliance to the section or to compensate them. The court’s ruling could impact the two companies financially and affect future demobilisations of the labour force at the Medupi project.
Spokesperson for Murray and Roberts, Ed Jardim, says that the right procedures were followed in terms of the PLA. He explains: “The core of the matter is not a dispute about the demobilisation process, as this was done in accordance with the Project Labour Agreement, but rather that, according to Numsa, some workers have been demobilised when specific work related to this project was still ongoing. Murray & Roberts was asked to escalate certain work on the project due to a very tight timeframe and we had to speed up to meet these timeframes as required by the project. We did this by hiring additional labour. When that specific timeframe was back on track, the additional labour on the project was no longer required. This would be the case with any project work, which any construction company would undertake. There seems to be, to the best of our knowledge, no precedent to this case.”
Sector co-ordinator for Numsa, Stephen Nhlapo, told Northern News the union is optimistic that the court will rule in their favour.  “Medupi is not an island and South African labour laws should be adhered to. You cannot allow companies to set up a PLA that is in contradiction with the Labour Relations Act. This is not a small battle we are hoping for a victory to ensure that workers at Medupi are not disadvantaged by unconstitutional regulations within the PLA.”
In response Jardim says the demobilisation process as stipulated in the PLA has been agreed to by all parties and should prevail. “Murray & Roberts acted in accordance with a collective agreement which has been followed numerous times by other contractors in association with Numsa to effect demobilisations.”
Regarding the possible financial impact on the company should the court rule in Numsa’s favour Jardim says:  “Because a number of variables exist with regards to the ruling, or any subsequent negotiations between the parties a court ruling in favour of Numsa it’s difficult to quantify the financial impact at this stage.”
A court ruling is expected within the next week or two.