THE United National Transport Union has accused Metrorail of unfairly sacking a train driver and a control officer following the collision of two trains in Mountain View on January 8.
Union spokesperson Sonja Carstens told the Pretoria News yesterday that they would take the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa) to the CCMA regarding the matter.
Carstens said the driver of the second train was on sick leave and traumatised by the incident, which killed three commuters and left 630 others injured, when his employment was terminated.
Union general secretary Steve Harris said Prasa deliberately ignored the Labour Relations Act when coming to its decision to fire the driver for alleged gross misconduct.
Harris said the driver was given 72 hours to explain why he should not be dismissed for alleged gross misconduct. When he did not respond, he was fired.
The traffic control officer was fired in the same fashion.
“He received another letter from his employer stating that due to the seriousness of the matter and his failure to respond, the employer considers his conduct unbecoming and found that he is unable to perform his duties.
“This is totally unacceptable and absurd. Prasa is looking for scapegoats after Transport Minister Dr Blade Nzimande said at the scene of the collision that its management should account for the incident.
“Nobody can be fired without a fair trial, and we have no doubt that the CCMA will rule in favour of the train driver. Unfortunately, the CCMA is flooded with disputes after the National Minimum Wage was implemented on January 1 and it might take a lengthy time before justice is done,” Harris said.
The union said Prasa’s top management should be fired and not the hard-working employees who had been using manual train authorisation despite the Railway Safety Regulator highlighting in the past that this posed high risks to Prasa.
Metrorail acting spokesperson Tony Games confirmed the driver and train control officer had been let go, but said the process was under review because the union was going to appeal against the decision.
“At this moment, we cannot give further details about this matter in public or in the media. We will communicate details at the appropriate time,” he said.