A STUDENT-worker alliance has claimed yet another victory at UCT, where 44 cleaners who had previously been employed as casual workers are set to be insourced.
The cleaners, who had been employed by Metro Cleaning Services, have been handed contracts to be insourced at UCT after students formed an alliance with workers to urge UCT management to offer them permanent part-time jobs.
The Left Students Forum (LSF) and the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma), who took up the plight for the workers, celebrated the victory along with the workers yesterday.
UCT Pasma chairperson Athabile Nonxuba said history had again been made by the student-worker alliance, who forced UCT to insource the cleaners.
“These workers were told to find employment elsewhere because they were recklessly chucked out of the insourcing project.
“While UCT publicly celebrated the insourcing that was fought for by workers and students, it showed its true colours by the way it treated these cleaners, who were fighting to keep their jobs at UCT,” Nonxuba said.
He said the workers had organised protests and engaged UCT management without any help from unions.
“Workers had to form strong solidarity and highlighted to UCT that to be a casual worker is modern-day slavery,” Nonxuba said.
LSF member Jeremy Phillips said the workers now have contracts to work four hours a day.
“The contracts are the same as Pay Class 2, but these would be adjusted for the number of hours that they worked,” Phillips said.
He said UCT management held information sessions with the cleaners yesterday and more sessions will be held today.
“Many of the 44 workers have already signed their contracts and the rest will sign tomorrow (Tuesday),” he said.
UCT spokesperson Pat Lucas said during the insourcing process, which resulted in more than 1 000 outsourced workers being insourced in July this year, it had came to light that the 44 workers were employed as outsourced workers but not as full-time permanent staff.
“They should be insourced… However, we cannot insource them as permanent workers as they were never permanent workers in the first instance,” she said.
Lucas said the workers would earn more in salary than before, as they would be coming on to the university's terms of employment and would receive benefits which included things like maternity leave, study rebates and pension.
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