Cape Town – MyCiTi bus operating company Kidrogen has axed 40% of its employees who were part of an unprotected strike following their failure to attend disciplinary hearings.
Hundreds of employees who demanded better working conditions and wanted to be directly employed by the City, downed tools nearly a month ago.
The strike turned violent, with the strikers allegedly intimidating their non-striking colleagues and torching buses.
Kidrogen gave striking employees an ultimatum that should they continue to not report for work, they would be fired. A number of employees returned to work, while the rest did not.
The company’s spokesperson, Leah Eckles, said some of those who returned to work received written warnings following due process in terms of the Labour Relations Act.
“On November 13 a final total of 40% of our drivers had either returned for one day or not returned at all. These employees were issued with a notice to attend a disciplinary inquiry.
"Subsequently, the entire 40% of drivers were summarily dismissed as of November 16, due to the fact that not a single driver made the effort to attend their hearing to defend themselves,” she said.
Eckles said they had managed to get their operations fully running by making use of all available resources.
Mayco member for Transport and Urban Development Felicity Purchase said the vehicle operating companies (VOCs) and the station management contractor were in the process of recruiting new staff.
In its attempt to have the service fully restored, the City had turned to the SA Road Passenger Bargaining Council’s (Sarpbac’s) National Bargaining Forum to intervene in the dispute between the employees and their employers.
Purchase said: “Sarpbac subsequently made available a senior commissioner to facilitate the talks to resolve the impasse between the aggrieved employees and the companies contracted by the City to operate the MyCiTi service - these include the VOCs, and the company who is operating the MyCiTi stations.
"Unfortunately, the talks did not succeed in resolving the impasse.”