Truck drivers association calls for deregistration of all foreign truckers
The South African National Cargo Transport Drivers Association has given the National Bargaining Council 21 days to deregister all foreign truck drivers.
The association claims trucking companies are deliberately hiring foreign nationals instead of their South African counterparts.
Its president Daniel Mofokeng says truck driving is a not a scarce skill and yet South Africans are constantly overlooked during the hiring process.
Members of the association protested outside the offices of the National Bargaining Council in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
“Our call is very clear on the issue of foreigners. The motivation we made yesterday to the bargaining council is that we need it to consider the issue that foreign employees have been employed illegally in this industry.
“In the trucking industry, we still maintain that it is not scarce skill. According to the provisions of the law, it makes a provision that every employee who is employed here and is a foreigner, needs to only be employed if the skill is a scarce skill.”
Mofokeng has also accused the Department of Labour of amending a policy to make it easier to employment of foreign truck drivers.
“We are hoping the council will deregister these people with immediate effect. Somebody is not performing their duty here, most especially the departments that are stakeholders in this matter, your Department of Labour, Department of Home Affairs, they are not doing their duty.
“There is a law that regulates the employment of foreigners and that is under the watch of the Department of Labour. But instead of enforcing the same law that they have, they want to come up with a new policy or new legislation to accommodate these people.”
According to the Labour Ministry, at least 84 attacks have been recorded since April this year amid anger in some quarters of the industry over the employment of foreign nationals as truck drivers.