Pretoria - While South Africans will be taking time off on March 21 to commemorate Human Rights Day, a farm business in Limpopo is planning to force its employees to report for duty.
Spiff Chicken, an abattoir in Naboomspruit, Mookgophong, has been accused by its workers of forcing them to work on Human Rights Day.
According to a memo, written by senior manager Philip van Niekerk and seen by the Pretoria News, disciplinary action will be taken against anyone who does not report for duty that day. This left some employees outraged.
The abattoir supplies big companies such as Makro and Spar, and employs over 400 people.
In the memo, dated March 8 and titled “Changing of work days during March and April”, Van Niekerk states that management had put the issue to the vote and management had accepted a 65% result in favour of working in the public holiday.
The letter reads on part: “Management received a request from workers to work on the public holiday of March 21 and then move the pubic holiday to April 1 and have this day off.
“Management considered the requests reasonable but some workers in the abattoir were not happy with the proposed change but the decision was put to a vote where 65% of the abattoir workers voted in favour of working on March 21.”
Van Niekerk threatened those who observed the public holiday with disciplinary action.
“Any staff member who does not report for duty on March 21 may face disciplinary action,” Van Niekerk emphasised.
However, a farm worker who preferred to remain anonymous, vowed not to report for duty on the day.
“This is the second time. I’m a woman and a mother who wants to spend time with my children on a holiday. Why should I be forced to work on such a sacred day. At first it was during Woman’s Day last year that we were forced to work. Now they are taking Human Rights Day from us.
“They are undermining our constitutional rights using the old divide-and-rule tricks masked under the ruse of a ‘vote’.
“They undermine that this day commemorates the dark era where hundreds of people were killed; it means absolutely nothing for them.”
Pretoria News