Satawu to probe working conditions of Fidelity guards
The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) has warned Fidelity Security Group over the hideous conditions some of its employees are being subjected to.
Jacaranda FM News reported on Monday that a group of more than 40 security guards have been sleeping in unhygienic conditions in an office park in Lonehill, north of Johannesburg.
Satawu's deputy general-secretary Anele Kiet says the security company’s CEO Wahl Bartmann claims to have been unaware of the guards’ living conditions.
Bartmann has subsequently vowed to transport workers to and from work in line with Covid-19 transport and social distancing regulations.
"We want to reiterate the fact that it is not a favour for an employer to provide safety for his employees, but law and Fidelity should abide by that and not become a law unto themselves,” says Kiet.
"I have called upon our security sector coordinator Philemon Bhembe and the full-time shopsteward to follow the matter and revert back, so we can take action as an organisation if there is a contravention of the law.”
ALSO READ:
LISTEN] Shocking living conditions without showers, beds for Fidelity guards
A guard, who did not want to be named out of fear of losing his job, said the new arrangement started after the Johannesburg metro police arrested a Fidelity Security Group manager for transporting 44 guards in one truck.