KwaZulu-Natal - A Zululand employee of KFC is being made to eat his home-made and non-halaal lunch in the staff toilet or the storeroom where cleaning chemicals are stored, he says.
Jabulani Cele, 31, says he is being victimised after he was reinstated by the CCMA last week following his dismissal for bringing uphuthu and bean curry into the takeaway restaurant.
The CCMA ruled that KFC franchise owners Colefax Trading (Pty) Ltd and Yum Restaurants International, which own the Empangeni franchise, allow Cele and his colleagues to bring their own food to work.
However, KFC said the strict rules were in place to prevent the chain’s food, which is sold as halaal, from being contaminated by food brought in by staff.
Cele was reinstated and received R5 200 in backpay for the two months he was without a salary – a victory that, he says, is hollow.
The United Chemical Industries Mining Electrical State Health and Aligned Workers Union has written to Colefax complaining about Cele’s victimisation.
“It has come to our attention that Mr Jabulani Cele is not allowed to eat his food at the canteen but must eat at the toilet or at the strongroom, where all cleaning materials are kept.
“Our tele-discussion with your Mr Akba Deen has revealed that the agreement signed at the CCMA is not adhered to,” it wrote.
The Mercury also wrote to Colefax asking it to respond, on behalf of its KFC franchise, to Cele’s latest allegations, but it is yet to reply.
Another KFC employee, this time from the Davenport Shopping Centre in Durban, says she was charged last week when she brought home-made food to work.
Gugu Smamane, 30, was warming her rice and chicken curry using the shop’s oven when the area manager, Nonhle Mgabhi, caught her.
The restaurant has a halaal certificate, which was issued by the Islamic Council of South Africa Halaal Fund (Pty) Ltd.
“She [Mgabhi] just took my food and threw it into the bin. Soon after that, she forced me to sign a notice of disciplinary enquiry,” said Smamane.
The restaurant is owned by Joy Dlamini, who owns 25 halaal-compliant KFC branches in KZN.
“Since I started working for KFC, we had been bringing in our food and warming it up without a problem. Others, even managers, bring food from nearby supermarkets and bring it into the store,” she said.
Smamane, a mother of three from Cato Crest, left her job after the altercation.
Other Davenport KFC employees said that after the incident with Smamane, they were also warned not to bring their food into the store again.
Mgabhi said she was enforcing the company policy. Employees did not have a fridge to keep their food in, nor did they have a microwave oven, she said.
“They should keep their food in their changing room, where they also eat it,” she said.
Dlamini said her restaurants did not follow the halaal rules.
“I don’t know anything about halaal. I’m a Zulu person and a Christian. I will talk to Nonhle [Mgabhi] about this because what she did was wrong,” she said.
A final written warning to Sifikile Buthelezi, from another branch of KFC in Empangeni, who was also disciplined for bringing food to work, has been withdrawn. She had also referred her complaint to the CCMA. - The Mercury